


A Girl Named Cora

by AmbiguousCake



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bepo gives best hugs, Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante Lives Again?, Expanded Heart Pirates - More detail and new ones, Family Feels, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'm not a doctor but I tried, Law has a Heart, Learning to Parent, Parent Trafalgar D. Water Law, Slow Build, Trafalgar D. Water Law Needs a Hug, lots of feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23204752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbiguousCake/pseuds/AmbiguousCake
Summary: When the Heart and Straw Hat Pirates make a pit stop on an unknown island, Law comes across a Marine base using children to mine a cave and a girl with a familiar smile and a protective streak a mile wide with the most uncanny nickname, Cora.  Unable to stop himself, Law saves the kids and ends up getting a new assistant in the process.  With her help, and the help of his crew, Law starts to heal his past scars.Or, Law adopts a girl named Cora that reminds him way too much of Cora-san and shenanigans ensue as they bond with the rest of the crew and heal.  Heavily focused on Heart Pirates interactions and Straw Hat interactions, Heart Pirates are also medical personnel.
Relationships: Background Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante & Trafalgar D. Water Law, Heart Pirates & Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 54
Kudos: 131





	1. A Girl Named Cora pt 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have the first 3 chapters written, but after that updates will probably be sporadic. I tried to not write this, but I love the idea too much of Law trying to be a parent and let's be real he needs someone in his life to help give direction. 
> 
> Spoilers for up to end of Dressrosa. This place outside the normal timeline of events and has the Straw Hat and Heart Pirates traveling together. Law/Luffy is pretty background, won't be much of a focus unless it's plot relevant. This first chapter is 1 of 3 parts and then the rest of the story will continue on.
> 
> TW:  
> Child Abuse  
> Minor Depression

LAW

Law was not a heavy drinker, but in order to get good information, you had to spend time at the local bars. And to not get duped because you were drunk, you had to be an experienced drinker. Really, one could make the case that to be a good spy you must also be an alcoholic but Law was not trying to be a good spy and would never make such a case. He did want to learn good information though and thus was at the bar more often than not. Occupational hazard. He definitely didn’t have a drinking problem. Most days.

Either way, Law found himself on an island with an unknown name, surprising his navigator and the Straw Hat Pirates’, and in the position of trying to learn what happened on this island of 50 people. He was expecting a quick resupply trip, he had already given his list to his pharmacist, Hitode, who went with Chopper to procure medical supplies, but had found some rather interesting information from a local that liked beer way too much; there was a hidden Marine base on the other side of the island.

It wasn’t hidden in the sense that no one knew it existed; everyone on the island knew of it. They all had their own rumors about it and told Law at length what they thought with the proper incentive (read alcohol). That they kidnapped the local children to turn them into soldiers. That they were secretly making high grade weapons for the Marines. That it was a research facility testing the ocean’s effects on plant life. The rumors were numerous and no one had anything credible to back it up. 

One local, an older woman that ran the inn that no one stayed at because they never had any visitors, told Law about the dormant volcano in the middle of the island and the forest infested with giant animals that ate anyone that tried to get to the other side. This, she claimed, was why no one knew for sure what the Marines did. They kept to themselves for the most part and getting to them was an endeavor no one in this small town wanted to undertake. Law, however, was not a helpless local and did not appreciate a Marine base on a no name island in the New World doing who knows what. He decided to investigate.

“You’re going by yourself?!” Bepo exclaimed through the Den Den Mushi when Law told him his plan.

“Yes, just to do some reconnaissance. Is that a problem?” Law explained, already walking in the direction of the forest. He was going there no matter what; but after leaving them on Zou for a long time he felt he should at least do them the courtesy of informing them where he was going.

“No! Of course not! I’m sorry!” Bepo apologized over the phone and Law could just picture the bow that accompanied it.

“Ok, if I’m not back by sundown, I’m probably in trouble and you should send help.”

“Will do, Captain!” Bepo responded and Law was grateful his first mate/friend understood his need for independence. He shuddered at the thought of having someone that questioned his every move or demanded explanations. Bepo was his first friend, though, and one of a handful of people that Law could stay actually understood him.

And here he was, in the middle of a forest bursting with giant beasts, getting all sentimental. If he was any younger, he might have thought the beasts challenging, giant snakes, giant bees, giant boars, but as it was, they were just a nuisance to him. The entire trip left him with too much free time, and Law was getting tired of all this time to think.

Ever since Dressrosa, it’s felt like he’s had nothing but time to think. Time to really reflect on the decisions he’s made and let the consequences wash over him, for things that should have been years if not decades in the past. But confronting Doflamingo and reliving all those moments just dredged them up from his mind and forced him to confront them in a way he never had before.

While revenge was still on his mind, he could put everything on hold. His grief, his pain, the loneliness; it was all shoved to the side while he orchestrated Domflamingo’s takedown. Gathering his crew had helped tether him to reality, but in the end his heaviest anchor was his revenge. He would lie awake at night, formulating his schemes and planning what he’d say to Doflamingo given the chance. 

And now. Now he’d had his revenge. Doflamingo was in Impel Down and would stay there for a long time. Until he died, hopefully.

Law was left free floating, his entire reason for existing gone in a single maddening day of near death experiences he is honestly surprised to say he lived through. Whether he’s relieved to live through it, he’s not sure and that scares him, too. He has his crew, the one he’s put together with a mishmash of people he’s met in his times traveling as a pirate/doctor. He has his goal of finding one piece, more a curiosity than anything else, but enough to give him a direction in his now void life.

But those were feathers compared to the mega ton weight that he carried on his shoulders for over a decade. And with that gone, he felt lighter; more free to do what he wanted, but aimless in a way he didn’t know existed before. And without the revenge, it just gave him more time to contemplate how aimless he was in a cycle that he couldn’t get out of. Things like exploring islands and fighting Yonko were good distractions, especially when one mixed in the craziness that was the Straw Hat pirates, but still.

He was missing something in his life. 

Law was reminding himself of how much his crew meant to him and how much they depended on him when the forest he walked through opened up to a Marine base, smaller than ones he’s seen before but more heavily guarded, too. Fifty foot walls all the way around, sentries walking the top of it and too many cameras pointed towards the forest, as if the townspeople were going to show up any minute and try to take over. He’d understand this kind of security next to a large city where people might try to sneak in for food, but this island was not like that. Their biggest threat was the wild animals, and the walls should take care of all but the giant bees, which he assumed the sentries were for.

It still wasn’t hard for Law to sneak in though with ROOM. He quickly identified the cameras’ blind spots, not nearly as many or as large as he would like, but manageable, made a ROOM and swapped himself with a dumpster inside the compound. Cora-san would be proud of him, using his sneaking skills instead of his killing skills. He would be even more proud of his surgical skills and since when has Law thought about Cora-san being proud of him for something? He really had too much time on his hands.

There was considerably less security once inside, but he noticed that a fair number of cameras on the walls pointed inward, too. That was curious, they were arranged like they would be for a prison, maybe they kept some dangerous low profile criminals here? Perhaps Marines they didn’t want the world to know were corrupt? Even so, Impel Down would be adequate for that. Law couldn’t think of anything, though, and decided to look around a little more instead.

Looking up, he noticed that there was a large factory on base, judging from the size of the building and the amount of smoke coming out of it. The other buildings he could see looked like dormitories and office buildings, one that might have been a chow hall. All of those were normal installations on a Marine base, so clearly the factory was the important thing here. 

Law navigated his way towards the smoking building, sticking close to walls and watching out for cameras. There weren’t many Marines walking about, so he dodged the few that were and made note of what ranks they and their job insignias and realized that most were in logistics and some in engineering. Nothing too surprising there.

And then he came upon a small park filled with children and his hypothesis of what this place might be went out the window. There were about a few dozen children running around playing tag, climbing on a Marine obstacle course, or play fighting in a sand pit. All the children looked to be well under ten and there were no civilian parents in sight; just a few Marines armed and in uniform supervising the whole thing. Suddenly, the one drunk rambling about child soldiers seemed a lot more credible than before.

The whole scene brought back memories of the experiments Caesar ran on kids at Punk Hazard, and left a bad taste in Law’s mouth. It wasn’t the same experiment, though, they were clearly normal sized, but he noticed that some kids would occasionally stop due to a coughing fit and they seemed to get winded rather easily. These kids were sick. 

Law watched them a while longer from behind a dormitory wall, trying to connect the dots between children and a Marine factory and not liking anything he came up with when one blonde girl, maybe a little older than the others, climbed to the top of the Marine wall shouting at the other kids, “I’m queen of the castle!”

The other kids took offense to this and yelled back at her, a few trying to climb the wall too but unable to. The girl at the top just laughed and smiled, her braided pigtails bouncing behind her. This all caught the attention of the babysitting Marine who must have figured that a small child on a giant wall was dangerous. 

“Hey, get down from there!” the guard yelled up at the girl and Law prepared to make a break behind the Marine while he was focused on the girl.

“Make me!” she called back down and Law was a little impressed that she was goading an armed Marine like that. 

The guard mumbled something and started walking over. The girl squeaked on top of the wall and made to get down but somehow she tripped on the rope and went falling over the edge in plain sight of Law and away from the Marine. The girl screamed and Law’s mind was already doing the calculations, that wall was around forty feet tall and her angle was head first; she’d probably snap her neck on impact and die. But if he made a ROOM and brought the girl to him, the Marine would probably notice and he’d have to fight his way out- and then one of the children screamed a name at the top of their lungs and Law’s thought processes instantly ground to a halt.

“Cora!”

Law didn’t think. He just reacted to the name like an animal trained to heel when called. The ROOM formed and expanded instantly to encompass the girl and the Marine and he brought her to him, dropping the ROOM and catching her in his arms. Her eyes were squeezed tight and her hands held protectively in front of her, her whole body tense and bracing for the impact that wouldn’t come. 

“It’s alright,” Law said in his best bedside manner voice (most of his crew would argue he didn’t have one), “I’ve got you.” 

At that, the girl (Law was in denial about her name for the moment) slowly opened her eyes and began to assess her situation, taking stock of the stranger that caught her. Law took the opportunity to do the same, noting the faint bruising on her cheeks and arms first and foremost. That, and the girl was lighter than he thought, but maybe children were supposed to be this light? Her shirt was too big and overalls too short on her legs, and entirely covered in some kind of dirt that was… salty? Ocean sand then? Law wasn’t sure what it meant but he was sure of one thing; these kids were not well taken of and most likely being taken advantage of. Whether it was factory labor or experimentation, Law couldn’t be sure.

After a few awkward moments, the girl looked away from him and towards the wall where the Marine had just arrived and looked around bewildered at not seeing a child on the ground. The other kids were subdued because of the Marine’s presence, but obviously agitated and nervously looking around.

“How did I…” the girl wondered out loud, the thought trailing off as she began to cough, turning her head away from him politely.

“I brought you to me when you were falling,” Law explained without explaining and the girl’s attention snapped back to him. He briefly took notice of the intensity in her expression as she analyzed him, and then his attention drifted to her cheek that had a little birthmark shaped like… a heart? 

“Are you a pirate?” the girl asked, her eyes zeroing in on all the tattoos and piercings Law didn’t bother trying to hide, like the ones that read “DEATH” across his fingers. Some things weren’t worth the effort and most of the people in town who noticed were too drunk to care properly. 

“I’m a doctor,” Law evaded honestly.

“What doctor writes ‘death’ on his hands?” she countered immediately and Law took back being impressed by her standing up to the Marine.

“The kind that tries to prevent death and wears it as a constant reminder.”

“So… you’re really a doctor?”

“Yes,” Law said just a little exasperated, but trying to hold onto his luck that the girl hadn’t just screamed for the Marines instantly.

“Are you here to help the kids then?!” Her eyes lit up as she said this, hands moving to cling to the front of his shirt. If he thought her gaze was intense before, it was piercing now. Her bangs were long, but even with the blonde strands partially covering her face her eyes drilled through it and into him.

“No, I’m not.”

“But you’re a doctor, you have to help them. Two have already died and there’s four more too sick to get out of bed. You have to help them.”

“Look,” Law started as he put her down, but she refused to let go of his shirt despite him trying to pry her fingers off so he ended up kneeling in front of her, “I want to help them, but I was just passing through and-”

“I’ll scream if you don’t help. You’re a pirate right? Usamu will be here in seconds once I start screaming.” Law filed the Marine babysitter’s name automatically before he moved on to parsing the rest of her sentence. He held no doubt that trying to put a hand over her mouth to silence her would be ineffective in the long term and she could definitely scream faster than he could make a ROOM. Was he being outmaneuvered by a ten year old?

Truthfully, he did want to help the kids, too. Damn Straw Hats rubbing off on him.

“Ok, I will take a look at them as long as you don’t alert the Marines.”

She watched him for a moment, eyes searching his face before she held up a hand with a pinky extended.

“Pinky promise?”

Law stared at the digit like she had spit on it, and then looked at her and yes she was completely serious about this. This was absolutely something she wanted him to do. To be fair, this didn’t come close to the indignities he regularly endured as an allied member to the Straw Hat Pirates. So Law sighed deeply and latched pinkies with the girl. Thankfully, there was no song, just a quick shake and then his pinky was free again.

“Good, they’re this way,” the girl explained and Law followed behind her. 

For a small child, she had impressive sneaking abilities. She was actively avoiding the cameras and Marine movements; Law heard her counting steps under her breath as they leaned against one wall. She also never fully turned her back on him. Even as they walked down hallways she turned her body to at least face him partially. 

“We’re here,” the girl announced as she opened a side door. The inside was a small infirmary, beds lined the walls, medical carts next to each one with a chair. At the front of the room was a desk and chair and opposite that a large sink and cabinets filled with different medicines. Seven children occupied about half the beds, all around ten years old, some in obvious pain, others fast asleep and one reading a book quietly.

“Cora!” the one reading exclaimed and immediately put the book down as their expression brightened. The other kids stirred, too, the name Cora spreading amongst them in between coughing sessions. Apparently, the girl was a much anticipated visitor here.

“Hi everyone! Look, I brought a doctor here today. He’s going to give you a check-up, okay?” Cora, and it was hard to deny her name with so many kids whispering it, looked up at him determinedly. The expression irked him because it looked familiar for some reason, but he wasn’t sure why. No time to dwell on it, though.

“My name is Dr. Trafalgar Law and yes, I’ll be giving you a check-up today.” None of the kids seemed enthused by this, but no one complained either so Law moved to the middle of the room, opened up a ROOM and attempted to begin a scan but was interrupted by Cora.

“What are you doing?” she asked and Law registered the tiniest bit of fear in her voice. He looked down at her and was surprised to see her gripping a small surgical knife tightly in her hand and pointed threateningly at him. His lips quirked up in a not smile at the thought of a ten year old girl thinking she could fight him, but then he acknowledged that she was just scared for the children in the room and decided to take pity on her.

“I am diagnosing the children, my devil fruit ability lets me create a bubble that-” Law started to explain but was cut off from cries of the other kids.

“You have a devil fruit ability?!” one of the kids yelled before devolving into a coughing fit.

“That’s so cool!” 

“What’s it called?”

“What else can you do?”

Every child’s voice clambered to be heard over the others, all trepidation gone as wondrous excitement took its place. Law had never heard anyone think of his ability as cool before, just creepy, but he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to start answering their questions. And they were being so loud! They were coughing weakly just seconds ago and still they made so much noise. Just as he was about to make a ROOM and remove their mouths to make them stop, Cora clapped twice and the children hushed.

“Dr. Traf… Trafger… Law can’t help you if you keep asking him questions. So no more questions until he’s helped everyone, ok?”

“Yes, Cora,” they intoned together. Satisfied, Cora nodded and with one last look at Law, tucked her knife away in her overalls.

With that taken care of, Law initiated a scan on the children and the answer to why the children were so sick was immediately obvious and even more appalling. They had mineral dust build up in their lungs. This was no disease, this was years of exposure to a certain area that steadily accumulated in the children’s lungs. 

“Are any of the adults sick?” Law asked Cora as he deactivated the ROOM and turned to face her.

“No, just the kids,” she reported back promptly and Law hmm’d in response thinking of locations mineral dust build up usually happened. 

“Do all the kids play in caves or-” 

“They’re sick from working in the mines,” Cora snapped and when Law gave her his full attention she continued, “It gives you a bad cough first, and then you can’t breathe well. Lt Zuri said their lungs were weakening and thought letting the kids rest would help, but they’re not getting better. Paula was the first to die from it last year, she had trouble breathing to begin with, but we lost Liam a few weeks ago. He just… stopped breathing one day.”

This was relayed with little emotion, but Law saw how Cora dug her nails into her palms and her eyes watered slightly. She looked ready to cry but held it in stubbornly. The other kids didn’t look much better, but they followed Cora’s lead in trying to stay strong in front of a potentially dangerous stranger. When one of the boys started having a coughing fit, Cora rushed to get them water, and then sat on the chair next to him whispering reassurances.

“Why do the Marines have children working in mines?” Law asked when the coughing subsided.

“If you promise that you’ll cure them, I’ll tell you.”

Law nearly groaned in exasperation. Was he this contrary at ten? Yes, actually, he was probably worse. He had to remind himself that she was stressed about the kids in the room dying and was trying to goad him into helping. 

She didn’t need to though; Law wanted to save them. Mineral build up in children was too stark a reminder of Flevance and the kids he couldn’t save, seeing their bodies in the streets. His sister with white spots... Walking out now would be an insult to the years he spent learning to be a doctor.

“Ok, fine, we have a deal then. You tell me what I want to know and I’ll cure them.”

Cora heaved a huge sigh at that and Law only just realized that she had been bluffing this entire conversation. Hell, the girl’s nerves were probably wound tighter than a boa constrictor trying to keep a semblance of control in this situation. All that deflated in an instant, though, and Cora collapsed back into the chair she was sitting in and Law leaned against an empty bed.

“We mine seastone,” Cora began and already Law had too many questions but he held his tongue and waited, “It’s in a cave near the coast here. There were two entrances, but in the last decade the larger entrance collapsed and there’s only a small hole now. The adults can’t fit through it, so they send us in to mine it and we bring it back out in little bags. We can only work when it’s low tide though, at high tide the cave fills up with seawater.”

“Why don’t they just make another entrance?”

“I overheard they’re afraid of collapsing the cave. If they try to make another entrance and fail, the whole cave will be underwater and they won’t be able to mine anymore.”

“Couldn’t they just dig it out?”

Cora shook her head, “Once seastone is in the water, it becomes impossible to mine. We tried it once before we learned to get out when the water came in. It doesn’t budge.”

Law had no idea how there was a seastone deposit out here, but he also had no reason to disbelieve her. Information about where to get seastone was a closely guarded secret in the Marines. It was one of the primary reasons they were so strong; they had a monopoly on one of the most powerful substances known. And this tiny island had a cave full of it? It certainly explained the extra security.

“So you’ll help the kids now?” Cora asked.

“Yes,” Law answered and opened up a ROOM. He initiated a scan again to pinpoint the dust particles in their lungs, he wouldn’t be able to remove all the dust but he’d get the majority out, and then stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Cora stood from her chair, coughing a little into her elbow.

“Nothing.”

Law forgot that he had included Cora in his scan and was surprised to see how much dust buildup she had in her lungs. It was on par with the other kids in the room, but she wasn’t bedridden like they were. When he thought about it though, she had been a little out of breath getting here and walked slowly. She hid it so well, though… 

“Shambles,” Law said, bringing all the identified dust particles to him. Some of the dust landed on his palm, but most of it fell to the floor unceremoniously. The children blinked at him curiously, confused as to why dirt appeared from nowhere and Law felt the strong urge to explain.

“While working in the mines, you breathed in mineral dust from the cave every day. Over time, this accumulated in your lungs, preventing you from breathing well and making you more tired. I’ve removed most of it, but mineral dust in the lungs causes a lot of scarring that won’t go away leaving the lungs weak. As long as you don’t inhale more dust, though, you should be able to breathe well enough again.”

His explanation was met with tears of relief and whoops of joy across the room; children taking a large lungful of air to test it out and not meeting the usual resistance. When a few tried to get up, Law cautioned that they were still weak and should rest. He was promptly ignored as the kids moved around to talk to their friends and hug each other in happiness.

“That’s all it took?” Cora whispered, staring at him in disbelief and then at her chest as if she could see the cleared out lungs.

“With my devil fruit ability, yes. Otherwise, there is no cure for it. You’d just have to carry around emergency medication to try and open the air passages should they close up.”

And before Law could dodge or even think to dodge it, Cora lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his middle in vice grip hug, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I… I never thought…” Her words trailed off as tears streamed down her voice and she hiccupped. 

To Law, this was a small moment in his life, just a random stop on an island, but to them, this was their whole world. The enormity of what he’d just done so casually hit him then. That these children would have been dead in less than a year had he not stopped by. Had Cora not pushed him into coming here.

“You’re welcome.” It felt too inadequate for this moment, too simple, but he didn’t know what else to say. And then Cora froze around him, let go of the hug and stepped back.

“This isn’t a disease, then. It’s not like a cold that we picked up from the mines.”

“No,” Law agreed, “it’s something that would happen to anyone if they spent enough time in that environment. If you wear paper masks from now on, it should help keep the dust out.”

Cora stared up at him, expressionless but for the eyes. A storm raged in them, thoughts zipping across like lightning before her face settled into something he never thought he’d see again, stopping Law’s world for the second time that day.

“Yeah, we’ll be okay as long as we wear the paper masks,” Cora said with a large smile. And Law knew that smile. It was full of lies and way too many teeth. The corners of the mouth stretched farther across the face than should have been possible. That smile haunted his dreams and caressed his nightmares, always there replaying in his head as the worst and best moment of his life. When he heard Cora-san say he loved him and then right after when he watched him die. 

That smile was Cora-san’s. There was absolutely no mistaking it. 

Law’s heart thudded to life again a second later as he connected that smile to the present situation and he wanted to slap himself for being so thoughtless. The masks wouldn’t help. They might slow down the build-up, but without expensive masks sealed to the face and with filters to breathe through, the children would still get sick and die. Perhaps he’d saved these children, but the younger ones outside were still in danger. They would be in this position a few years from now and only Law would be able to save them and he wouldn’t be here.

And still Cora had just smiled and said it would be alright. Lying straight to his face to protect him from something he couldn’t change. Again.

Law was about to apologize and take it back, but then Cora held a hand up and the children immediately quieted too.

“Someone’s coming,” Cora told Law, and yes, now Law could hear the footsteps, too. Two sets of footsteps, both coming their way. Law looked to Cora for guidance and she pointed to a cabinet in the back of the infirmary.

“Quick, you can hide back there!”

Law doubted the cover standing behind a cabinet would give him, but he didn’t see many other options and if worst came to worst he’d make a ROOM and teleport out of there. For now, he’d trust Cora. 

The door was kicked open just as Law hid and a woman’s voice called out, “Cora! There you are, we’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“I was in here, helping the kids, Vice Admiral Amara.”

There was a deliberate pause in conversation and Law chanced a glance around the cabinet to see a tall woman towering over Cora, dark hair spilling over her right shoulder in waves and pistols on each hip. She wore a Marine long coat, signifying her Vice Admiral status, but wore a wide brimmed, high crowned hat with MARINE on it instead of the usual cap. Underneath the coat, she wore a denim collared shirt with some beading and a matching pleated skirt. 

Behind her was another woman, probably her Lieutenant, with pink and blue hair that twisted around in two large pigtails curls. She had a shorter Marine jacket on, fully buttoned, but some pink material peeked out the ends of the sleeves and several colorful necklaces hung from her neck. Her hat was normal, but was decorated with stickers of different candies and sweets and she had ice cream cone earrings to match. Her skirt was an eyesore to Law, layered frills of bright rainbow colors, and her candy cane stockings and bright pink shoes made the whole thing look like some child threw up on her after eating too much candy. 

Law’s attention went back to the Vice Admiral as she started talking in a sweet voice, but Cora looked close to panicking.

“Oh, were you now? You were supposed to be outside, playing with the other kids. Petty Officer Usamu said he saw you fall off the rope wall and was very concerned about you.”

“I did fall off the rope wall, I bruised my hip and shoulder and came here for some ice, see?” and there was a pause as Cora pulled back the sleeve of her shirt to show a bruised shoulder bone, “then I decided to stay and help the kids.”

Amara looked down at Cora, trying to see if she was lying to her, but either didn’t find any tells or didn’t comment on it before she continued, “You decided to just stay here. Without telling anyone. Surrounded by sick children. Cora, you’re not supposed to be in here, what if you get sick, too?”

“I won’t get sick. I’d already be sick if that was true,” Cora defended badly. Law wondered where all that bravado from earlier had gone, and then he saw what was different.

“Because this isn’t the first time you’ve snuck in here?” the Vice Admiral picked up on and the minimal color that was left in Cora’s face promptly drained away, an ashen and stricken expression left.

Law could only watch as the woman’s expression turned fierce when Cora didn’t say anything and she backhanded her, sending the child sprawling across the floor. Lt Zuri squeaked in surprise and made an aborted motion to help, but ultimately held back. Law held back only barely, his blood boiling in his veins as Amara strode over, still enraged, and she kicked Cora in the side to turn her over and then stepped down on her chest.

“You are not allowed in here on your own. If you need something from here, you will ask one of Marines and they will get it for you or escort you here. Do I make myself clear?”

Cora coughed as she struggled to breathe, but nodded her acquiescence.

“Good, I’m glad we understand each other. Lt Zuri will take you back to the other kids, I have work to do.”

With that, Vice Admiral Amara turned to leave the room, but stopped when she saw the dirt on the ground. She bent to inspect it and then looked at Cora curiously, but Cora wisely said nothing in response and turned away to hide a cough. With a small scoff, Amara ordered Lt Zuri to clean it up and strode from the room. 

As soon as the door slammed shut, Lt Zuri rushed forward to help Cora sit up. The Lieutenant fussed over Cora and brought her to a chair to get some ice to put on her face while she cleaned the dust from the floor.

“I’m sorry I can’t do more, Cora. If I could, I’d whisk the lot of you away from here and we’d go live by ourselves on an island somewhere,” Lt Zuri said as she cleaned and Law noticed that watching her move was way worse than when she stood still, the colors all blending together oddly.

“I know, Zuri, and it’s alright. I think our luck might be turning around, actually.”

Lt Zuri sighed, “I don’t know where you get your optimism or energy, kid, but I could use some of it.”

Cora laughed at that and chanced a glance at Law, flashing him a big grin, and the other kids smiled too before Cora gave them a look and they all tried to hide their smiles unsuccessfully, a few giggling even. 

“What’s so funny?” Lt Zuri asked, genuine curiosity and joy in her voice.

“Nothing!” the kids chirped, which sent them into more giggling fits.

“Okay, okay, you all get some more rest, the doctor will be by in the afternoon to check on you. And if you promise to be on your best behavior for him, I’ll give you some candy, alright?”

“We promise!” the kids chorused and Lt Zuri went around to each kid, drew a circle in their palm and a hard candy appeared. So, she was a devil fruit user, and if Law had to guess, the candy candy fruit. When she was done making a candy for each bed ridden child, she went back to Cora and made an especially large lollipop for her and got a shy smile in return.

Law watched from his hiding place as the ice pack and cleaning supplies were put away and Cora was led out of the room by the Lieutenant, cheerily waving back at him and the kids with a big grin, a hand shaped bruise marring her cheek.

Law didn’t bother saying goodbye to the kids and instead made his way out of the Marine base, putting the dumpster back where it was, and to the Polar Tang and his crew. The rest of the day passed by quickly for him, inventorying his new acquisitions, reading a book Robin lent him, and ignoring members of both crews when they tried to get him to participate in one of their drinking competitions. He normally joined in on them, but he didn’t quite feel like being drunk right now.

Instead, he retired to his room and tried to put the Marine base and the children out of his mind. There wasn’t a lot he could do, he reasoned. He had removed the dust and those children would live, he reminded himself. He was a pirate, not a hero, he didn’t owe it to anyone to save those children, he tried to justify. Bad things just happened to people sometimes and it wasn’t anyone’s fault, he convinced himself.

The excuses and rebuttals fought in his head for the rest of the day, a cat and dog chasing each other around and around until it was time for him to go to sleep. Law had trouble sleeping on the best of days, and today he laid awake with his thoughts until he said screw it and took some pills to help him sleep.

He had one of his usual dreams, or nightmares as it was. Sitting alone in a treasure chest, the cold biting into him as his teeth chattered, exhausted from the Amber Lead Syndrome. A happy smile looking down at him, so wide, too wide. Cora-san’s voice saying that he loved Law with too much emotion behind it, too much truth. 

And then abruptly the scene shifted. Normally, Law watched as Cora-san walked away, rooted to the spot and screaming until his voice gave out, but the face in front of him morphed into that of a little girl’s. The hat gave way to dirty blonde hair, and braided pigtails swung in the breeze where tassels hung before. There was no make-up on the face, just some dirt smudges and a bruise shaped like a handprint. The voice didn’t whisper “I love you,” but instead it said, “I’ll be okay.”

But that damned smile remained.

And then the little girl walked away, footsteps crunching in the snow. Law screamed at her to come back and was surprised to hear his adult voice and not the child’s this time. Looking down, he was an adult now, too, somehow still inside this treasure chest. He looked up and the girl was standing in front of a tall figure with a menacing smile, someone the girl was supposed to trust but didn’t, not anymore. A pistol glinted in the person’s hand, pointed at the girl.

A shot rang out, and then Law woke up in a cold sweat, heart beating furiously in his chest and lungs heaving to get air in. His heavy breathing only reminded him of the children that would be dead in a few years and he decided then and there that he would save them. He was a pirate, but he was also a doctor and dammit if saving people didn’t feel good. It didn’t have anything to do with a blonde girl named Cora. Nothing at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! I picture vice admiral amara dressed like annie oakley and lt zuri in decora fashion (as much as Marines let her get away with) and Let me know if you have any ideas for future scenes between Cora and Law interacting as not-parent and not-child but they definitely are.


	2. A Girl Named Cora pt 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cora recounts meeting a pirate that is also a doctor and can save people with a snap of their fingers  
> Law convinces both pirate crews to storm a Marine base and save some kids  
> They both try not to get killed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we get to see things from Cora's perspective! 
> 
> TW:  
> Past Child Abuse  
> 

CORA

The day had started out like any normal day for Cora. Wake up, get the kids ready, eat breakfast and make the trek to the mines. Make sure every child met their quota, let the sick ones rest when necessary and then go back for lunch and playtime. Cora played tag with the kids, got a little more winded than she thought she should be but that was fine, and then decided to show off today and climbed the rope wall. Normally, Cora just touched the top and went down, but she wanted to take a break at the top and the kids went crazy when she did so she counted it as a win.

And then the Usamu had spotted her and she tripped in her haste to get down.

Cora was usually clumsy, that wasn’t anything new, but she knew as she started falling that this was different. This wouldn’t be a small scrape from nicking the edge of a table or a bruise on her shoulder from bumping into a wall. Her upper body pivoted backwards, like an upside down swing, and Cora was able to lean her head back and look down at the ground rushing up to meet her. She was high up. Bones would definitely break if she landed improperly, and at the angle she was headed, that bone would probably be her skull. 

Her breath caught in her throat, too scared to even scream, and she closed her eyes bracing for the worst to happen. She hoped it wouldn’t be painful. She hoped she’d get to see her parents again, and Liam and Paula and Kira and Jetti and she’d apologize for not being able to save them. For not being able to stick around longer and protect the kids here still. 

Cora was praying to anyone and anything when she suddenly realized she wasn’t falling anymore. It felt more like someone was holding her, their arms around her back and under her knees. Their chest was warm next to her, expanding and contracting gently and she moved a little closer to it. A voice was whispering to her, assurances that she was okay and she felt… safe. Safer than she had in a long time. Hoping this was real and not the afterlife, she opened her eyes and looked up.

What she saw was not her knight in shining armor come to save her, but a pirate. The pirate insisted he wasn’t a pirate, but Cora had seen pictures of pirates with lots of tattoos and piercings and this man was most certainly a pirate. But then he said he was also a doctor. And if he had just saved Cora, could he save the other kids? Maybe there was such a thing as a good pirate if there were bad Marines. The chance was too good to pass up so Cora bullied him into helping the other kids.

She didn’t trust him, he was a pirate after all, but he was a pirate doctor, and she needed a doctor right now. All the kids did.

Dr. Law, he had a longer name but it was too hard to say, cured the children in an instant. He just said a few words and snapped his fingers and the children were cured. Cora couldn’t believe it. Was it that easy? Had the Marines just been lying to her? But no, Dr. Law was a special doctor with a devil fruit power and the only one that could have saved them. She was so thankful, she hugged him. He seemed just as startled by her action as she was, but he was definitely a good pirate if he saved the kids so she assured herself it would be fine.

When she realized this was a onetime cure, and would only work for these kids, she told him that was fine. It wasn’t, not really, but there was nothing else for it. Now that she knew that there was no cure, Cora would just have to start putting her escape plans into action. She would save these kids, she had to.

Vice Admiral Amara came and hit her, but that was nothing new, and Lt Zuri gave her some ice because she was the only good Marine, and soon Cora was back in the mines with the rest of the kids. The thwack of hammers on chisels resounded in the small cavern, accompanied by the sharper ting sound of pickaxes. All across the cave, the children worked in small groups, some holding ladders so they could get the seastone higher up, some holding the chisel while another hammered. But there were a few children too tired to work and Cora let them rest against the walls instead.

Not that resting against the walls would really help when the entire cave was permeated with dust. 

Cora could feel it now, clinging to her insides and going down her throat. Lt Zuri said she would get them the paper masks as soon as she could, but already the work Dr. Law had done to remove the dust from her was being undone. She felt a little bad, but there was no helping it. The children needed her here.

She was still thinking about dust build up when her inattention got the better of her and she smacked her mallet down on her thumb and not the chisel. A small hiss of pain left her and she quickly darted her eyes around to see if anyone had noticed when she saw one of the kids stop working and plop down on the ground. Concerned, Cora went to check on him and found Nilati sitting there, his breathing harsh.

“You okay, Nilati?”

“I’m tired,” Nilati whimpered as he slumped further down, pickaxe discarded by his side. He was nine years old, and this was the first time he’d had to sit out from working. Cora kept track. 

“You take a break then,” Cora said, patting him on the shoulder, “let big sister Cora take care of it.” Nilati nodded weakly and closed his eyes. Looking around, Yomi and Wyrt were resting too. They were also nine years old, Yomi just about ten. Looks like Dr. Law was right and the mineral dust build up affected the ones who had been in the mines longer worse. 

“We only have a little longer left, and then we’ll go back and rest,” Cora told the others. They murmured back their agreement with various levels of enthusiasm and Cora figured that was the best she was going to get.

“Time to go!” Petty Officer Trumel called into the cave, signaling that low tide would be ending soon. The kids all scrambled to put their tools in piles and lined up at the mouth of the cave with their bags. Cora went to the front of the line with hers and made sure each kid had enough to pass quota and then helped push them out of the cave.

The entrance for the cave was weird. It did an S turn in the middle, so you couldn’t slide down into the cave or just push someone up through it. You had to crawl at least a little bit in the middle, which made it dangerous to navigate for tall people even if they were skinny. Cora was getting older and bigger, but managed to user her flexibility to fit through. It was tight and took some wiggling, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from helping the kids.

“Minka, tell us a story!” Benny all but demanded as soon as they made it to the dorm rooms, jumping onto the bed next to Cora’s. Minka was by far the best story teller of the kids here, only Foley was better, but he was sick in the infirmary, so the next best option was Minka. 

“Okay, what kind of story?” Minka asked as he let his dark hair out of the ponytail it was in.

“A funny story!” Benny said.

“No, I want an adventure!” someone else interrupted.

“A romance!”

“Something scary.”

The children’s voices all clambered over each other to be heard, some literally clambering over each other to get closer to Minka, but when he started coughing, they all backed away to give him room. Cora got him some water and put it down next to him and he sipped at it gratefully and then turned to look at her.

“What do you want, Cora?” Cora mused on it for a second, but there was only one kind of story she liked.

“An adventure story. Where you can travel all across the world and see everything. And it has to have a happy ending.”

Minka nodded as if that settled everything and he cleared his throat to start. The children hushed around him and listened in, hanging on his every word.

Cora listened as he told the story. It started off with a pair of siblings living on a small island together. But one day a storm came in and took one of them out to sea. The other cried for them over their favorite swing, and the swing grew to life and became a flying horse. Together, they traveled to island after island in search of their sibling, following any news they could. They met big people and little people, people with utensils for hands that made delicious cakes and horrible people that wanted to turn the child and horse into cakes. But in the end, the siblings were reunited and the horse turned out to be the father they thought they had lost and everyone lived happily ever after.

Cora helped put the younger children to bed after the story and then laid awake in her own, staring at the ceiling. She took out the knives she kept in her overalls, put two in her dresser, but kept the third one out as she spun it around her hand. The weight of it was familiar to her and she didn’t fumble with it as it moved seamlessly across her palm. It was too late for her to sneak downstairs and still get enough sleep for tomorrow, but other nights she’d go to the training room the Marines didn’t use anymore and practice throwing them. She didn’t consider herself an expert, but she could aim decently well and the knife sunk in point first. 

One day soon, she’d probably have to fight her way out of here with the kids, and she wanted to be ready for it.

Law woke up that morning getting his usual amount of no sleep and made a beeline for the coffee machine. If there was one thing on the sub that was always fully stocked, it was coffee. The crew knew well that when coffee was low, body parts started flying and that was never a fun time for anyone (except Law. And maybe Kani, they seemed to like it, too, hard to tell with the mask)

As he entered the small kitchen/ dining area, he spotted Clione at the stove top making something that smelled good and Tako leaning on the counter next to him sipping at what was probably one of his disgusting teas. Both looked up when Law walked in, snapping to attention despite the fact Law has never asked them to do that. It started off as a joke Penguin and Shachi did at the beginning, but everyone else assumed it was the norm and copied them. Like the uniform thing. At least them all wearing the same uniform was easy to maintain, the attention thing was just annoying.

“Got your coffee all ready to go, Captain,” Clione said and pointed with a spatula to the coffee machine. Law nodded gratefully and poured himself a large mug of coffee, already gulping it down as he checked on his chef. Clione looked like he didn’t get much sleep, playing babysitter to the drunks was his self-appointed job and he usually stayed up with them to make sure no one died of alcohol poisoning. They had taken turns with this before, but when Clione joined he said he didn’t drink and didn’t mind looking out for them. Law never questioned it and let him do as he pleased.

“Did ya get any sleep, Cap’n? Ya look xhaust’d,” Tako chided as he put his tea down and came to fuss over him.

“I’m fine, Arms-ya, nothing worse than usual.” When that didn’t appease the man, Law gave in, “I couldn’t sleep so I took some of the blue pills, okay?”

“Cap’n…” Tako said, his expression falling like a disappointed puppy. Law didn’t know how he managed it, the guy was seven feet tall with biceps and thighs larger than most people’s heads, but his eyes went wide and sad and made Law feel like he took away his favorite toy or something. 

“I know, I know, I’ll try to hold off next time, it’s just…” and Law trailed off as the reason for his inability to sleep (last night) came back to him. The Marine base, the children, Cora… 

Law poured the rest of the black liquid down his throat in a rush, the caffeine giving him the small energy boost he desperately needed and then he turned to his two crew members.

“Wake up the crew and meet on the deck of the Thousand Sunny in half an hour,” Law ordered, the effect only somewhat diminished as he brandished the empty coffee mug that said “World’s Best Captain” at them. 

They snapped to attention and saluted with a, “Yes, sir!” and Law tried to figure out if they were serious or mocking him, but ultimately decided it didn’t matter. They were following what he said without complaint and that was good enough for him. Law grabbed a tangerine they had bought of the Straw Hat’s navigator (for way too much) before Clione could yell at him for not eating and made his way to the Thousand Sunny.

His plan was simple: get Luffy on board and then let everyone else succumb to his stubbornness. His own crew would go along with it without question, but why he was never sure. What did he do to deserve all that trust? He abandoned them for months to chase a revenge plot that could have ended in disaster. He wasn’t particularly nice to them, either, his personality was too warped and he didn’t care enough to try and fix it.

Whatever it was, though, he had a loyal pirate/medical crew that he trusted with his life and he was grateful for it.

Law arrived on the deck of the Thousand Sunny the normal way; it was too early to be making ROOMs when he didn’t have to. Most of the crew was absent, probably still asleep, but Nami, Robin and Jelli were settled around one of the tables chatting, Brook was playing a soft violin melody, and Law knew from the empty parfait cups on the table that Sanji was in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Is Strawhat-ya awake yet?” Law called out, not wanting to intrude too much on their conversation.

“Yeah, he’s on the mast- oh here he is,” Nami started, but her attention shifted to behind him and Law braced himself for impact.

“Torao! You’re awake!” Luffy yelled at much too high a volume for this early in the morning and bodily slammed into Law, wrapping what felt like a dozen arms around him but was just two all stretched out. Law accepted this was his life and moved on. Carefully, he walked away from the girls’ table so they’d be out of earshot, Luffy laughing in his ear the whole time.

“Luffy-ya,” Law started glancing back at Luffy who was still grinning madly at him (Law secretly loved that grin, it was all the brightness of Cora-san’s but none of the lies), “I have a new date idea for us.”

“What is it, Toroa~~?” Luffy singsonged, finally unwinding himself to stand next to Law.

“We’re going to crash a Marine base.”

“Ehhh, is there anyone strong there?” Luffy asked, his grin fading as he thought about whether he liked this idea or not.

“There’s a Vice Admiral I’ve never seen before guarding an important secret,” Law confided and Luffy’s eyes lit up at the word “secret.”

“What’s the secret?!” Luffy demanded and Law knew then that he’d won.

“A seastone cave no one’s supposed to know about. We’re going to blow it up.”

The sparkle in Luffy’s eyes faded and for just a second, he looked at Law seriously. Law couldn’t help the butterflies in his stomach, wondering if maybe he’d declared victory too early, but he needed to do this, he needed to help those kids, Cora… And then Luffy smiled at Law again and laughed, his eyes crinkling in delight, “Torao comes up with the best ideas.”

“I try,” Law admitted with a relieved sigh.

“Oi!” Luffy shouted across the deck, “we’re going to take down a Marine base today!”

Nami turned to face them with a scowl on her face, “We’re supposed to be leaving today! This was just a short re-supply stop!”

The yelling drew Chopper and Sanji out from below and above respectively, and Law could see his own crew gathering at the Polar Tang and heading over. The ones that weren’t dead drunk. Oh well, Penguin could make his special hangover cure when he got up and they’d all be good as new. 

“But Torao asked me to explode a cave with him,” Luffy pouted and Law tried and failed not to smile at it. 

“This was your idea?” Nami asked, and Law nodded, “Explain why we’re doing this then.”

“When everyone gets here, Nami-ya, I’ll explain.”

Nami didn’t look happy about that, but Law still held a small modicum of respectful fear amongst their crews, mostly his own from dismembering them, and she waited until the crews gathered around. When all but The Straw Hats’ sniper and first mate were present, she went into the men’s cabin and dragged them out, ignoring their squawks of protest in favor of getting the show on the road.

“Explain.”

“The Marine base here has a cave full of seastone and they’re using children to mine it because the entrance is small. At least two of the children have died already from mineral dust build up and more are going to. According to my informant, the cave is unstable and could be easily collapsed.”

Both crews blinked at him for a moment before Shachi raised his hand and Law nodded in his direction to speak. “So what you’re saying is, you want us to break into a Marine base to save a bunch of kids.”

Law did not flush at that, his cheeks most certainly did not turn red. There was definitely a perfectly logical reason for this that did not involve disgracing his reputation as a feared former warlord of the sea.

“No, it’s to cripple one of the Marine seastone production facilities,” Law countered and that sounded perfectly reasonable until Tako, Chopper, and Franky sniffled. The fearsome former warlord did not think that the two large men huddled close together with Chopper snuggly between them was a comically adorable sight. 

“I didn’t know ya had such a sof heart, Cap’n,” Tako said through his tears, Chopper and Franky nodding vigorously next to him.

“I don’t-”

“It’s okay, Captain, we want to help the kids, too,” Penguin assured him, coming over to pat him on the shoulder.

“I’m for helping kids,” Nami volunteered and wasn’t it just great that she was on his side now?

“Woah, guys, guys,” Usopp interrupted, making a time out motion with his hands, “this is still a Marine base we’re talking about here. That won’t be easy.”

“Yeah! Law said they have a Vice Admiral! I think it should be fun!” Luffy chimed in and that was not helping.

“If they’re guarding a seastone cave, they must have some strong people,” Zoro mused and right, this was the Straw Hat Pirates and mentioning impossible tasks actually worked to motivate them.

Law looked to his own crew scattered around him and saw that they were all smiling at him pleasantly. They understood this was something he had to do and would help him with it, despite it being impossible.

“I-I-I’m with long nose on this one, they’re way too strong.” Oh, right, Law forgot the crew had picked up a new Swabbie since he was gone. He was still immune to the craziness of the crew and didn’t have the blind faith in Law that the others had. Which Law considered a good thing, he apparently needed more people to tell him his ideas were suicidal. But in this instance, he just wanted Swabbie on board with the idea.

“You can guard the ship then, Swabbie,” Ikkaku told him as she swung an arm around his shoulders, “we don’t want any cowards coming with us.”

“I’m not a coward, I’m just trying to be practical…”

Law tuned out the rest of the squabbling; Luffy had already decided to do it and that was all that mattered. Speaking of, said rubber man was giving Law a huge shit eating grin right now.

“What is it?”

“You really do just want to save the kids, don’t you?”

Law took the moment to remember the feeling of the dust on his hand in the infirmary, the hacking coughs loud in his hears, and then the coughs were from smoke from the fire that burned all around him. The scent of burning flesh clogging his nostrils and it smelled like death and their cries sounded like failure. Like a gunshot he couldn’t prevent. He wouldn’t let it happen again.

“Yes,” he whispered honestly and from there it was a whirlwind of preparation. The crews split up into four groups: the distraction team, the explosives team, the rescue team and the guard team.

Distraction team: find the Vice Admiral and fight her, cause chaos on the base to take attention away from the cave. Team members: Luffy, Zoro, Jean Bart, Clione, Uni, Bepo

Explosives team: construct the explosives, place them around the cave, and set them off safely (read, not injuring teammates or other friendlies). Team members: Law, Franky, Usopp, Shachi, Ikkaku

Rescue team: find the children and help them escape, administer any care necessary. Team members: Chopper, Nami, Sanji, Tako, Penguin

Guard team: Guard the ships in case the Marines attack: Brook, Robin, Kani, Hitode, Jelli, Swabbie

Law was well aware his plan would fall apart the second it met enemy contact, plans never lasted long with Straw Hat Pirates involved, but for now everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing and that was enough. They all knew the general goals and each group had a Den Den Mushi to relay information between the groups, Bepo, Nami, Usopp, and Swabbie in charge of one each that all connected together. Communication was important on a spread out mission like this, and Law wanted to be able to accomplish this with as little issue as possible.

Who was he kidding, this was going to be a mess no matter what he did.

Law and his group scanned the coast as they waited for a signal from the distraction team to go in. Franky insisted they take the Mini Merry II despite there not being enough room for the five of them (especially with Franky) but since they didn’t have any better options and they needed a smaller vehicle, they all crammed in together. Law was tempted to dismember some members in order to make them fit better, but resisted knowing time was of the essence and they needed to be ready to go.

The cave Cora had mentioned wasn’t hard to find, there were two guards stationed in front of it and a few more scattered around the coast patrolling the area. 

“So,” Shachi started and already Law knew he wouldn’t like this question, “while we’re waiting, you said you had an informant here. On an island with no name that no one knew existed. You must have worked pretty fast…” 

Ikkaku laughed next to him and Law heard Franky whistle before saying, “Super-fast, we were only here half a day. You gotta tell me about her.”

Law’s eye twitched in annoyance and his hand moved to the hilt of his sword. He did not appreciate the insinuation when his informant was in fact a ten year old child.

“No,” Law denied and Ikkaku nudged him playfully.

“Aw, come on, Captain. We’re just teasing you. We always knew you were a ladies’ man… or a man’s man. Basically that you’re sexy and could seduce anyone you wanted to.”

His sword was in the process of being unsheathed when he looked at the cave entrance and saw a small child wriggling out from it. The child presented a small bag to one of the guards who inspected it and then pointed at a cart up the hill a little ways before scribbling on a clipboard. Obediently, the child scurried off to dump the bag’s contents into the cart and then darted back into the cave. Law’s eyes widened when he realized what was going on.

“It’s low tide,” he said tonelessly.

“Yeah, so?” Usopp replied, never one to miss a beat.

“The children are in the mines right now, well, the ones that aren’t too sick,” Law explained, “Contact Nami-ya and tell her to split her group and send some here.”

Usopp pulled out the Den Den Mushi and contacted Nami, explaining the situation, when there was a loud crash from the main base. The distraction team was doing their job.

“Do we go in, Captain?” Ikkaku asked, eyes darting between the coast and Law.

“Wait,” Law said and pointed to some of the Marines leaving to go to the main base. That left one in front of the cave entrance and two others on opposite sides of the beach. “We have to make sure they don’t contact reinforcements, and then get the kids out of the cave.”

“So, we’re sneaking then?” Shachi mused, “like ninjas?” and each of the boys got a little excited twinkle in their eyes at that. Ikkaku rolled her eyes but said nothing and Franky pulled the ship back and went around the island some more, past the last Marine, and then docked. 

Law led the group into the forest and they came out above the cave they saw, some twenty feet above the coast line. The group spread out on top to examine the ground looking for weak spots they could put the explosives in, Ikkaku with some sonar device she must have borrowed from Penguin and stashed in her travel backpack and Franky with some built in sensors Law didn’t understand and didn’t want to.

“This isn’t super,” Franky said coming back to the group, “We’re going to have to put the explosives inside the cave.”

“Yeah, rock’s too thick,” Ikkaku agreed and Law sighed. Plans could never just be simple, could they?

“I’ll go in with the explosives then, set up the explosives and then bring all the kids out. In that time, discreetly take down the Marines,” Law said and looked at the two snipers who nodded in understanding. Shachi volunteered to take out the guard at the front and Franky said he’d help direct Law where to put the explosives in the cave.

With a plan set, Law took the explosives from Franky and stepped out of the forest line. He put his free hand out to make a ROOM, but pain exploded in his arm. His legs toppled underneath him instantly, all his strength sapped from him in a moment, and the rest of the group behind him rushed forward. Law tried to make a ROOM, but his body wasn’t responding to him. It was a challenge to stay even somewhat upright, his uninjured arm braced against the ground.

“Captain! What happened, are you alright?” he heard someone ask but it was hard to tell who. Sounded feminine, so Ikkaku probably. He felt like he was underwater, everything was muffled and he had difficulty breathing. His eyes tried to focus on something, and landed on the wound in his arm, bleeding profusely over someone’s hand as they held cloth against it. They were applying pressure to it, good.

“Shrapnel sea stone bullets,” a voice said, “do you like them? Made them myself.” The voice was female, but not one he knew well. And did she say seastone shrapnel?! Is that what was going on?

“Get him out of here, Ikkaku, get the shrapnel out.” And that was Shachi, his voice serious for once. If that was all it took, maybe Law would get shot at more often. No, that was a dumb thought. He’d tried that already, it wasn’t fun.

“On it!” Law felt himself being picked up and watched as Shachi, Usopp, and Franky geared up to face off against whoever attacked him as they came into view. An admiral’s coat, long, wavy dark hair and wide brimmed hat… it was the Vice Admiral that had hit Cora. Ikkaku better get the seastone out of him fast, Law was going to cut her to pieces when he could move again.

Speaking of, he was on his back now, arm raised in the air. Ikkaku was anxiously muttering next to him, incoherent words that might have been swear words, and running a portable X-ray device along his arm. When she leaned over him to do something he heard her muttering more clearly, “so many fucking pieces, why is seastone shrapnel a fucking thing, fuck that bitch, fucking pain in my ass,” and then it was just background noise as she moved away again.

Law felt like he was dying. Apparently, having seastone touch your skin and having it in your skin were two entirely different sensations. When it just touched him, his body was sluggish and he couldn’t use his powers, but with it under his skin, his mind felt sluggish too. He knew consciously that the seastone wasn’t moving, but it felt like sea water was traveling in his veins, replacing his blood. Pouring down his nostrils and mouth and into his lungs, suffocating him. Law focused on just breathing, steady in for three counts, hold for three counts, out for three counts. 

“Yes, keep breathing like that,” Ikkaku encouraged, her swear tirade on hold for the moment, “this will hurt.”

Law didn’t have time to ask what before he felt something pierce his arm, and then start to move around. He flash backed to Doflamingo and Dressrosa and suppressed to urge to throw up. It was dizzying, the metal moving around in him combined with the feeling of being underwater. He wanted to just pass out, but Ikkaku was talking to him again.

“No, no, no, don’t you dare pass out. I know it hurts, but I need you still and awake. C’mon, Captain.”

So Law obeyed and tried his best to stay awake while his engineer scooped out seastone shrapnel bits. His eyes eventually found the battle ahead of him, where Shachi, Usopp, and Franky were fighting the Vice Admiral, but his eyes couldn’t stay focused on them for long. He could hear metal clashing and gunshots ringing out, but if anyone was hurt, he didn’t know.

Then Ikkaku had to dig in his arm a little more to get a piece out and Law lost touch with the world as nausea waged war in his stomach and his vision blacked out. 

“What was that?” Minka asked and Cora didn’t have an answer for him. It sounded like they were testing cannons outside, but she didn’t think that was likely. It was some kind of fighting, though, and it had to be big if she could hear it in the cave. Maybe it was Dr. Law and his pirate crew, fighting the Marines. Cora wanted to be right, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up. Still, if there was any kind of fighting, it might be a good enough distraction for escape.

“I don’t know. Give me your seastone, I’ll go check.” Minka and a few of the other kids poured their seastone into her bag so she could dump a mostly full bag out, the Marines got snippy if someone only brought them half a bag.

Cora took the bag and began to climb out when Petty Officer Usamu called down to her, “Stay in there for a bit. There’s pirates out here and we don’t want you getting hurt.”

So she was right, Dr. Law had come back! Maybe he was going to cure the rest of the kids? He did seem like a softy the longer she got to know him. Either way, she would do no good sitting in here waiting for them. Cora made up her mind and pulled out two of the knives she had and continued climbing out.

“What?! I can’t hear you!” Cora yelled back and heard Usamu mutter under his breath about difficult children.

“Stay there!”

Even as he yelled it, Cora was wriggling her way out. As she got to the top, she slipped a knife into each hand and mentally prepared herself for what to do.

“You need to go back in, I can’t-” but Usamu faltered when Cora stabbed a knife in each of his thighs. This brought him down to his knees with a cry of pain, and Cora took advantage of the lower target to swing the bag of seastone at his head. It connected with a satisfying smack and he went down. Cora retrieved her knives from the new unconscious Marine and did a quick check of the area only to find one of the Marines down the coastline aiming at her.

Disbelief warred with fear as she tried to convince herself that he wouldn’t shoot her. She was just a child right? What Marine would open fire on a child? But then, they routinely beat her and didn’t have a problem with that. And she had just knifed one of them in plain sight. Yes, he was definitely aiming to kill her and the thought paralyzed her, rooting her to the spot. Not even 24 hours had passed and she was already staring down death again. 

Cora saw the muzzle flash and heard the bang as the gun fired, heart thudding in her chest, her ears, everywhere, and then a black leg appeared in front of her, and she could have sworn it kicked the bullet away, before the rest of the person joined it. It was a tall, blond man in a black suit, hands lazily tucked in his pockets and this seemed much closer to the knight in shining armor ideal than Dr. Law. 

Mind coming to many conclusions quickly, Cora reached out to tug on his shirt when he was suddenly gone. The girl blinked for a second and then saw that he had teleported to where the Marine that had fired on her was. Maybe Dr. Law’s pirate crew all knew teleportation? It wasn’t the weirdest thought. And then he walked back to her normally and crouched in front of her so they were nearly at eye level and his swirly eyebrows were definitely weirder than the idea of teleporting.

“Are you here with Dr. Law?” Cora asked before he could say anything. He looked surprised for a moment before nodding.

“In a manner of speaking, yes. We’re here to escort you kids out. Is everyone else inside?”

“No, we have some kids in the infirmary, too,” Cora explained, trying her best not to just stare at that eyebrow or comment on it. Was it his real eyebrow?

“We got them, is everyone else in here?” and he indicated with his head towards the cave. Cora nodded.

“Good, then if you’ll get everyone out, we can bring you back to the ship.” 

They were here to rescue them. No one would have to work in the mines anymore. The thought made tears well up in the corners of her eyes but she pushed it back down for now. They were not safe until everyone was on their way out of here.

“Sanji! Is the child alright?” a woman’s voice asked, a little breathless. Cora turned to see a tall woman with flowing orange hair and worried brown eyes looking over Cora. She was a kind woman, then, and were all pirates kind? Suddenly the stories she knew of pirates being dumb and mean didn’t seem as true and it made sense the Marines would make up stories like that. The kids would make up stories too about the Marines they didn’t like, which was most of them. 

“I’m fine!” Cora reassured and then went to get the rest of the kids out. 

She was about halfway through when a robot man landed on the beach with a bag in his hand. She thought the others were tall, but he was even bigger, with bright blue hair and the oddest proportions that still resembled a human. And a small red swimsuit which made Cora and the other kids giggle because it reminded them of Captain Swill and his horrendous swimming lessons. Then she noticed the bullets holes in him, leaking some fluid she didn’t know and she didn’t think it was so funny anymore.

The others accepted him readily and broke off to have a quick discussion. Cora added him to the list of good pirates and was startled to see them turn back to look at her.

“I’m Nami, What’s your name?” the orange haired woman asked as she stepped closer and crouched down.

“Corwynna, but everyone calls me Cora.”

“Cora, we need your help. We’re going to get you out of here, but first we want you to place these explosives in the cave. Franky here,” and she gestured to the robot man, “will tell you where to put them, but we can’t get inside the cave. Will you help us out?”

“You’re going to blow the cave up?” Cora asked excitedly.

“Yes…”

“I’ll definitely help.” Nami smiled at her at that and Cora felt her heart lift. Not only were these pirates getting the kids out, they were preventing the mines from being used again! Pirates were definitely better than Marines.

Cora thought about asking some of the other kids to stay and help her, but didn’t know if they’d be okay with destroying it. Some of the older kids like Nilati and Yomi wouldn’t need much explaining, but they were also exhausted already and sick. Trying to explain to the younger kids what to do would just take more time and, looking at her feet, time wasn’t on her side.

Nami and the other man led the rest of the kids away after reassurance from Cora they were good people and to trust them. Then Cora took the bag from Robot Franky, squeezed her way inside and began to set up the explosives.

There were five of them, and Franky wanted to place them high up in the cave so Cora had to drag the ladder around. She almost regretted her decision to not ask for help, but ultimately decided it didn’t matter. She was here now and would just have to make the most of it.

“Oh, woah!” Cora heard the robot yell and make a small splashing sound and she looked back to see that the water was pouring in now. Looking back in the bag, she still had two explosives left. She was running out of time. Thinking about her impending doom was getting old, though, so she took a deep breath and continued to set up the explosives.

A few minutes later, they were all set up and she told Franky as such.

“Super! You can come out now!”

Gulping back her anxiety, Cora waded to the front of the cave and looked down. The water was almost at her waist here and completely covered the entrance. She had only made it through the flooded entrance once before, and she had help back then. In the early days of trying to figure out how to mine the cave, one of the Marines got lax with his time keeping and didn’t warn them when the cave started filling up. One of the kids noticed it, but by then it had already accumulate a few inches. Jetti, the oldest at the time, helped push kids through the water, but once they were all through, he wasn’t able to make it out himself. 

The kids arrived at the cave the next day and had to drag his lifeless body out of the cave. Cora still remembered the lingering stench of death that permeated the cavern, the feel of slimy skin on her hands, and vowed she would become a great swimmer and stay flexible enough so she could get out if it ever happened again.

Time to put that to the test.

Cora took a deep breath and dove under the water. Her natural buoyancy tried to push her upwards, but she fought it and grabbed at the underside of the tunnel to push down. She opened her eyes and kicked her legs to push forward and reached out with her arms to find a grip to pull herself up. There was nothing to hold onto, though. Cora kicked back her legs to push from the ground, but found nothing there either. Her back was digging painfully into the underside of the rock and the longer she spent struggling the more her lungs burned.

Eventually, the strain was too much and she pushed out with her hands and flailed back to the surface. Her lungs greedily took in air as she did so and she tried to get her breathing back to normal.

“You okay in there?” Robot Franky called out.

“Everything’s fine!” Cora replied on automatic. It was not fine. She was stuck in here. All the other kids made it out so at least she would be the last child to die from this cave. Dr. Law would save the other kids and fix their lungs and they would grow up to be wonderful adults. And Cora would be stuck in here. 

“I’m not going to be able to get out, though, you’ll just have to set them off anyway.”

“Woah woah woah, we’re not doing that. That’s so not super.”

“You have to!” Cora countered, “I can’t get through the entrance.”

There was a silence on the other end and then, “I’ll figure something out, be right back!”

Cora was alone then, but this was fine. She was scared of dying, but more than that she was scared that she was useless to help her friends. With her sacrifice, she could help them and prevent anyone else from going through this. Jetti had done it for them by getting them out of the cave, she could too.

And it was weird to think of this as some kind of sacrifice. Like she was in a one of the stories Foley or Minka would tell; the mother who kept giving to her unruly children or the boy who never turned down a request for help. Cora never liked these stories because they both ended with the mother/boy dying and the children/town learning an important lesson about cherishing what you have and not taking it for granted. Yet here she was, practically living out that story by making all the other kids leave and staying behind.

Cora realized with a start that she didn’t want her story to have a sad ending. There was nothing she could do, though, she had tried to get out. Her arms splashed by her side and she tread the water, and the ceiling loomed ever closer. Her harsh breathing echoes around the cavern as she began to panic and cry. She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t hold back the tears this time. This was really it.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to no one, but sent the words out to all the kids she’d never get to see again. To Lt Zuri for being the one good Marine and trying to make a difference in their lives. To Dr. Law for trying to help them when he didn’t need to. She closed her eyes and leaned back in the water, trying her best to accept that this was it. This was how she died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Cora by the way. And most of the characters I'm making up, aka most of the Heart Pirates. We see a few of them here and we'll get a real introduction to them later, for now, just hang tight. I love comments by the way, good or bad, I want to know what you think of the characters and story! Thanks for reading!


	3. A Girl Named Cora pt 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Law sits uselessly for a while, a mine gets wrecked, and Cora makes a decision about her future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last part of the prologue, I know I left off with a cliffhanger last time, but it will all get resolved here. 
> 
> TW:  
> Mild Body Horror

LAW

Law decided seastone shrapnel bullets were the worst thing invented by the Marines. Seastone cuffs and other items were annoying, but they were wearable and removed easily enough. With a shrapnel mechanism, though, if even just a tiny piece of the seastone was in him, it was impossible to use his power and remove it. It was a frustrating conundrum. 

What was more frustrating was watching his crew and allies get attacked and being helpless to save them.

Once the initial wave of nausea passed and Ikkaku managed to get the large seastone pieces out (Law was doing his damndest to ignore how much pain his arm was in from her digging around in it), it was clear they were losing against the Vice Admiral. Shachi was the only frontline fighter they had and was supposed to be distracting Amara, but she used him like a shield instead. She deftly blocked or redirected his sword swings with one of her pistols and used the other to occasionally fire at Franky and Usopp forcing them to take cover.

Franky had one noticeable hole in his shoulder that was leaking cola, but Usopp looked unharmed for the most part. Neither of them could fire a shot, though, not without risking hitting Shachi instead. It was a stalemate.

And then Vice Admiral Amara changed her target from the support line to Shachi and punched a bullet through his chest. Law screamed out, but he still couldn’t move, couldn’t get himself to do more than sit up and was promptly pushed back down by Ikkaku.

“We have to get the seastone out, first. Then you can help him,” Ikkaku said, her voice was tight with constrained emotion. Law let his anger simmer and watched helplessly as the Vice Admiral kicked him away unceremoniously and charged the shooters.

Franky stepped forward to engage her, a mini machine gun popping out of his forearm and firing at her. The vice admiral raised her gun and intercepted the shots, the bullets bouncing off the gun and ricocheting around her. It took Law a moment to realize the gun was coated in haki. Then she pointed the gun at Franky and fired. The cyborg tried to dodge, but she had closed the distance as she was blocking and his body was made to block bullets, not dodge them. Unfortunately, the bullets pierced his armor and three new holes sprung up. Law had never seen a normal bullet damage the cyborg, and seastone shrapnel wouldn’t affect his armor, so then what was it?

“You will leave the island now, pirates,” Vice Admiral Amara demanded, spitting out the word pirates. She looked murderous, her hat downturned to cast a menacing shadow on her face, but her steps and aim remained firm. As she walked, she reloaded her pistol, and when Usopp took a shot at her, she gracefully dodged it without breaking stride.

“We’re not going anywhere without those kids!” Franky yelled back, firing a laser at her. This actually forced her to dodge to the side to avoid it, and bought enough time for Franky to retreat backwards towards Usopp. This also doubled to give Usopp enough time to prepare one of his Pop Greens.

“Midori Boshi!” Usopp yelled out as he loaded and fired the seed, but what it was going to be was unknown because Amara fired at the seed before it could grow. 

“How much longer?” Law asked Ikkaku, glancing down at his arm. Looking was definitely a mistake. Law was an experienced surgeon, but this crude method of shrapnel removal was disgusting to see. There were several incisions on his arm, each bleeding freely, that Ikkaku would use to stick a gloved finger in and probe around. Her x-ray device had two parallel panels, one with a screen facing up and the panels were adjustable to a certain width apart. This being Law’s biceps, they only needed to be half a foot apart to work well. Ikkaku would run the device around his arm, find the pieces, and then pick them out with her finger or forceps.

It was not the bloodiest thing he’s ever seen, but the sheer crudeness of it sets Law’s teeth on edge as a surgeon.

“I don’t know,” Ikkaku confessed, “there are lots of small pieces in there that I just can’t grab.”

Law was about to say something back, what he wasn’t sure, when Penguin ran up to him. Even from a distance and slightly sick, Law could see that he was freaking out.

“Captain! What happened?” 

“Seastone shrapnel in his arm,” Ikkaku answered as she continued digging around in said arm. 

“… Can you get it out?”

Ikkaku looked up at him, and then pointedly did not answer his question. Law did not like that answer.

“Nami and Sanji came with me,” Penguin explained and then gestured to where said Straw Hats were helping their friends. The stalemate didn’t let up any, though, because Sanji wasn’t going to attack the Vice Admiral and instead opted to block her bullets. If his sexist attitude got one of his crew or allies killed, he didn’t care how mad Luffy would be, Law would make sure he’d never do it again.

“Where’s Shachi?” Penguin asked, scanning the trees behind him and the cliffside without seeing him. Ikkaku explained much better than he could what happened and Penguin rushed off to go help his friend. Good, Law was worried about him, too. 

The battle in front of him continued on, Sanji able to block any attacks but refusing to make his own, and Law’s attention drifted to the explosives next to him. They needed to set them up, but Law couldn’t do it anymore. Ikkaku was working as fast as she could, but it would take time they didn’t have. Not only that, but Nami and Sanji were supposed to be helping get the kids out of the cave, not patching together a robot and dealing with a Vice Admiral. Where was Luffy when you needed him?

As if summoned by Law’s thoughts (more likely Nami had called him), Luffy rocketed in from above and landed an axe kick on Amara, forcing her to block. This created a shockwave all around them as the ground under feet was crushed from the force, but the Vice Admiral still stood. With Luffy fighting Amara, that freed up everyone else to rescue the kids and get the explosives in place. Actually, that gave Law an idea.

Nami and Sanji were already gone, likely to help the kids, but Franky and Usopp were around and Law had Ikkaku call them over, confident Luffy could handle the Vice Admiral on his own. 

“Take the explosives and have the kids set them up in the mines,” Law ordered, fully expecting them to just agree and comply. Straw Hats were a difficult breed, though.

“Can we really trust kids to do that?” Usopp asked as he rubbed his chin in thought, “I mean, do they want to?”

“My informant says they want the mines gone. And Robo-ya can explain where to put them.”

Usopp and Franky looked at Law’s arm where Ikkaku had her fingers buried in, made disgusted faces at the display, and agreed that this was probably their best shot at collapsing the cave. Franky grabbed the bag and Usopp said he’d go back to the base to help and they both left. Law took a deep breath in and out and continued to ignore the pain from his arm.

At least with the larger pieces out, his nausea was down and that left him with a much clearer head. Now that Luffy was distracting the strongest one here, it seemed like this plan would actually work. The kids would put the explosives up in the cave and then Nami, Franky and Sanji would escort them back. Then Luffy could take the three of them and rocket out of range while Franky set off the explosives and collapsed the mine. 

Law was brought back to the present when Luffy screamed in pain. Concerned, he looked over to see a bullet hole in the Straw Hat’s stomach. Seastone bullets were hard to make and not efficient, hence the shrapnel idea, so her bullets were coated with haki then? This battle might not be as easy as Law thought. Still, Luffy had faced worse enemies and more impossible odds and won.

Even now, he was adapting to the bullets and dodging them or using his own haki on his arms to block them. It wasn’t his preferred style, Law knew, but Luffy was nothing if not adaptable. He tried a haki enforced gatling next, and while the Marine could block some of the blows, she couldn’t block them all and took a few good hits to the stomach and legs that knocked her back. Luffy didn’t waste the opportunity and jumped up to send a pistol down at her, but she rolled out of the way. He seemed to be wearing her down at least if her harsh breathing was anything to go by.

Law watched the battle until Franky came running up the hill, waving his arms to catch their attention.

“Did you get the explosives set up?” Law asked as Franky stopped next to him and for once Franky didn’t go into one of his super poses. It wasn’t good news then.

“I did, but that’s not important! One of the kids is stuck in there!” Franky rushed to explain, eyes downcast. Law’s heart stopped because with his luck he knew exactly which kid it would be.

“How?”

“She volunteered to put them explosives up by herself, cute girl with yellow braids,” and Franky mimed the braids with his hands pulling down from his ears to his chest, “and that was super good until the water came in and blocked the entrance!”

It was Cora. Of fucking course it was. She loved the kids and probably knew the tide was coming in, she wouldn’t have wanted to put them in any danger. Stupid self-sacrificing soul. 

Law grit his teeth and managed to ask how long they had before it was too late, but Franky didn’t know. 

Law tried to make a ROOM, his hands turning in the familiar motion, but he couldn’t grasp the power as the blue circle appeared and fizzled out instantly. It was right there, but slipping through his fingers like dust the second he tried to make it real. He made another attempt, and another, but still the op op fruit would not obey him, the tiny shards of seastone in his arm too much.

Cora was going to die right in front of him again and he would be powerless to stop it, again. Why did he have this power if he couldn’t save people with it? Why wouldn’t it work when he needed it to the most?

Images from his nightmares came back to him, a too big smile framed by blonde hair, footsteps walking away, far away, and then the overwhelming anguish that came when Law realized they weren’t coming back to him. Lami in a closet Law couldn’t get to in time, forced to watch outside as it all burned, his sister, his town, his life. Oppressive heat purging him, the scent of burned flesh suffocating him, and charred bodies crushing him from all sides. Over and over on repeat for years.

Law let these images ignite a fire in him, scorch his already terrible anger at the world for what it’d done and then honed that anger into a razor sharp edge of determination. This was his ability and it would listen to him. 

“ROOM!” Law roared, all his intensity behind the single word as he focused on his downturned palm, the blue ring appearing and then filled out into a sphere. Still focusing, Law expanded the sphere, inflating it to encompass his shrapnel infested arm. The effort left him dizzy and panting for breath, but it was there and it would hold. 

“Scan,” Law invoked with his other hand and he felt where the pieces were, highlighted too on Ikkaku’s x-ray machine. 

“Shambles.” With a flick of his hand, the pieces disappeared from his arm before they reappeared on his palm and he quickly dropped them like hot coals. Looking at the x-ray screen, there was nothing visible and another scan confirmed it. He was finally free of the seastone.

The effort left him exhausted as the ROOM collapsed, but he couldn’t rest yet.

“Woah, let me help,” Ikkaku piped up when Law got up and swayed to the side a bit as if he was drunk. Law accepted her help and they walked closer to the top of the cave, Franky on alert by their side. Law barely registered Luffy still fighting the Vice Admiral, too focused on his new goal: save Cora.

Just those words fueled him and when Ikkaku got them into position, the op op fruit listened to him this time without reservation and the ROOM formed easily. Growing it to the size he needed was hard, but only because he was exhausted and Law was used to pushing past that barrier. Cora lit up on his scan, lying prone in the water, and for a moment he wondered if he was too late somehow, but her vitals were strong and breathing even. Time to get her out of there.

Law shrugged out of Ikkaku’s support and brought Cora to him in one swift motion, catching her like he did the previous day. He noted the tears on her cheeks first and her gasp when she opened her eyes second. Still in the room, his scan fed him information about her temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure, but neglected to inform him of the way her eyes lit up when she saw him, or the kind of grin he only saw someone like Luffy make, unbridled joy without reserve.

“You came back,” she whispered and Law couldn’t help but return a small fraction of that smile back.

“I did,” Law agreed because he was awful at this and couldn’t think of anything better to say. Cora didn’t seem to care, though, and promptly wrapped her arms around him in a hug again, face buried in his shoulder. She started hiccoughing and mumbling things like, “thought I was gonna die,” so Law put his pride aside for a moment and pat her gently on the head.

The moment ended when Luffy was knocked back towards them, Law and Cora both turning to face the gun slinging Marine. Cora gasped when she saw her, but the Vice Admiral smiled at her, the corners of her mouth tucked upwards, but her eyes hard and cold.

“Cora, dear, why don’t you come over here and away from those dreadful pirates,” Amara suggested, but the pistol pointing at them and flat tone made it more of a command.

Cora shook her head no.

“Surely, you don’t want to stay with those ruthless killers,” Amara asserted as she took a step towards them. Law unconsciously angled Cora so he’d protect her better and Luffy stepped in front of the both of them with haki raised fists, but Cora surprised them both.

“They’re not ruthless killers! He cured the kids of the dust lung!” Cora shouted, wriggling out of Law’s grasp to stand next to him instead. Law took out Kikoku now that his hands were free and prepared to make a ROOM.

“Impossible, there was no cure for that,” Amara countered with a derisive scoff, but then her expression turned thoughtful, “Actually, you have the op op fruit right? Hm.”

Cora gasped sharply and stepped out from behind him to face Amara directly, “You knew what was wrong?!”

“Of course. The doctors ran an autopsy on all the children that died. It wasn’t until the second one died of the buildup we were sure that was the cause, though. Why do you think we have so many children on bed rest?”

“You knew about it, but continued to make them work in the caves?” Law asked and that familiar anger came rushing back to him, pouring into his heart and spilling out to the rest of his body. 

“The seastone had to be mined, and the children were the only way to do it.” 

Law had heard enough. He created a ROOM and made to go and cut her to pieces when Cora tugged at his shirt with a cry of “no!”

“What?”

“We need to destroy the cave,” Cora pleaded. He yearned to fight Vice Admiral Amara and show her just why he was the Surgeon of Death, but Cora was right. The seastone mine was the priority, and right now was their best bet to destroy it. They could finish her off afterwards.

“ROOM!” Law ordered and made a larger ROOM, stretching the limits of his abilities so they’d be out of the radius of the blast zone. When he was satisfied, he located himself, Cora, Luffy, Franky and Ikkaku and prepared for the swap.

“Oh, by the way,” Law said loud enough for Amara to hear, “have fun mining seastone from under the ocean.”

Law took satisfaction in the confused look on her face before realization set in and her normally placid face morphed into pure outrage and turned interesting shades of red. She started screaming something at him, but Law had already made the swap and her words were just an echo from where they stood on the path between the beach and the base. They were all some feet apart, having switched places with lamps, but turned to look at Law with varying expressions.

“Hey! I wasn’t finished fighting her!” Luffy hollered and glared at Law.

“We’ll fight her some other time,” Law acquiesced, not believing it but wanting Luffy to, “we have a cave to blow up now. Robo-ya?”

Franky grinned at him and pulled out the detonator from his… hair? “One suuuuper explosion, coming up!” He then posed dramatically with his arms above his head at a weird angle and yelled out another “super” as he hit the button.

A series of booms sounded out from the cave, and Law watched as Amara jumped down and grabbed a Marine that was there before running farther down the coastline and out of sight. She was just in time because soon after the rock face fell off and the entire cliffside collapsed in on itself. The tumble of rocks splashing into the ocean was a fulfilling sight and Law chanced a glance at Cora only to see her beaming back at him.

“Thank you, thank you so much,” she said and Law let her have her moment. To him, this was just a small act of kindness on his way through the New World, but to her, this was her world. For years, this had been her torment and nightmare, watching kids grow sick and die as she got sick herself. And now, it was over.

“It was my honor,” Law replied, the words too formal, but he thought he was getting better at accepting gratitude. Eventually, he’d be able to give a proper response that didn’t feel foreign, but for now he’d settle with common phrases.

They watched the destruction play out until there was no more movement, and then Law turned for battle as he felt footsteps approach from behind.

“Cora! Oh thank goodness you’re alright!” It was Lt Zuri, a whirlwind of bright pastel colors as she swept Cora up into a hug, ignoring the pirates entirely.

“Zuri!” Cora enthused and hugged her back just as hard before she pressed back to face her, “The mine’s gone! We destroyed it!”

“You did what?”

“Exploded the mine!” Cora emphasized the point by waving her arms around as the Lieutenant held her. “The pirates brought in explosives and I set them up in the mines and then-”

“Woah, slow down, there kid.”

The bubblegum Marine put Cora down then and finally noticed the pirates gathered around her. She didn’t seem too concerned about it, though, and began to lead Cora back down the path to the Marine base.

“You’re not going to question the pirate thing?” Law asked.

“I did earlier,” Lt Zuri confessed, “a whole bunch of you came onto the base wrecking everything. Vice Admiral Amara left Rear Admiral Bill in charge here and went to check on the mine, so I went to evacuate the sick kids. Imagine my surprise when a group of pirates came in and said they were here to rescue them. I brought out my candy cane sword, but the kids protested, saying that Cora had led a pirate in yesterday and cured them all!”

Here, she looked down at the blonde girl with a fake serious expression and Cora giggled up at her, completely unrepentant. “That was Dr. Law,” Cora explained and pointed to him.

Lt Zuri nodded and continued, “I didn’t quite believe them at first, one was a little reindeer and another this hulk of a man, but they pulled out some medicine and used the medical equipment on hand to check the kids. It took some time making sure they could be moved, but we got them all up and were going to bring them to the docks, but then there was an evacuation notice for the Marines to leave the base. I don’t know which of you fought Rear Admiral Bill, but you sure spooked him into leaving fast.”

“Where are the kids now?”

“Up ahead, we gathered them all in the playground area. Thought the fresh air would be good for them while we decided what to do. Then the rest of the pack joined up and they’ve been catching up ever since.”

As the group entered the gate to the base, dozens of little voices called out to them and came running. Cora ran ahead of the group to intercept them, tripped on the ground, and the kids took this as an invitation to pile on top of her. They were a giant pile of laughs until Cora pushed them off of her and then swept them all into a hug as best she could. Lots of the little kids cried on her and there were excessive amounts of snot everywhere, but they all looked happy and relieved to be reunited. 

“What are you going to do now?” Nami asked Lt Zuri who was currently eating a rainbow candy cane. Law briefly contemplated the weirdness of eating a candy made from your own devil fruit, but decided it wasn’t worth the brain power.

Lt Zuri shrugged, “Dunno. Looks like all the Marines left, and with the mine gone there’s no reason to come back. This base is self-sustainable so we could just stay here. Teach the kids how to farm and let them build their own life.”

Law agreed with her assessment that the Marines would probably abandon the base. They probably took a large chunk of the mined seastone with them and the factory would be useless without the mine to supply it. Better to try and find a new vein to excavate.

A few moments passed in companionable silence when Cora ran back over to the adults, kids in tow. They all crowded around Law, pressed tightly around him so he was trapped. Nami, Ikkaku and Lt Zuri were all suppressing laughter off to the side and Law did his best to ignore them and focus on the pack of children in front of him.

“Can you get rid of the dust lung in the rest of the kids?” Law looked down to see all the younger children plus Cora looking up at him with huge puppy-dog eyes. 

“I can.” They kids all cheered and Law made a shooing motion for them to step back. They obeyed and Law repeated the process he had for the other children, making the ROOM, scan, and pulling the dust to his palm. 

“Was that it?” one of the boys asked looking down at himself.

“I thought it’d be much cooler.”

“No, it was super cool! He just moved so fast you couldn’t see!” a girl protested and made zooming motions to show it.

“Like a ninja!” one of the others exclaimed and the rest accepted this and joined in the awe. Law didn’t have the heart to tell them he wasn’t a ninja; if they wanted to think of him as one, he was okay with that.

“Just because this is gone doesn’t mean all the damage is fixed, though,” he warned, mostly directed at Cora who was the oldest among this group and the most likely to understand. “Your lungs are still weak and will be scarred on the inside from the minerals bouncing around in there for so long. You will be able to run, but it might get painful to breathe after a while of it.”

That brought the mood down instantly, but Law knew it needed to be said. He couldn’t let them think he had undone all the damage while some remained, it’d create more complications for them down the line.

“Could you fix the scarring?” Cora asked.

Law pondered it a moment before he answered, “Yes, but it would take some time. I’d need to work on each lung one at a time.”

“Then you should do that!” Cora argued and the other kids nodded along with her shouting their own agreements. Law wanted to, but he didn’t think he could convince the rest of the crew or the Straw Hats to stay for days when this was only meant to be a quick stop; they had to get going to their destination. Luffy especially got impatient and while he was on board for destroying a Marine base, hanging out while Law helped some kids might be too much downtime for the energetic pirate.

“I can’t, Cora. We should really be going.”

“We’ll give you seastone!” Cora blurted out and Lt Zuri gasped.

“Cora, we really shouldn’t give pirates seastone…”

“Would you though if it saved the kids?”

The candy woman hesitated for only a moment, Law could see the fight she had against her Marine-drilled instincts to not give pirates any advantage, and then caved in like the seastone mine, “Yes, of course.”

Cora turned back to Law, daring him to deny her this. Law had to at least try.

“We’re pirates, Cora, we could just steal the seastone from you and leave.”

“The raw ones, probably, but only Zuri can access the refined stone.”

Law paused at that and looked back towards Nami to see what she thought. If Cora could convince the treasure mongering Nami that it was worth it, then that would probably be enough for everyone else to agree. Nami shrugged in response but smiled. Oh, right, Nami wanted to help the kids, too. 

“Seastone is a precious commodity, I’m sure we could sell it for a lot of money.” And with that, the deal was made. Their destination could wait. The Heart and Straw Hat Pirates would hang around this small island a little while longer.

CORA

“What are you doing now?” Cora asked.

“Moving around the new cells to stimulate growth in the scarred area,” Law replied.

Cora nodded in response, but did not understand what that meant. The words were all ones she knew, or at least had heard before, but that didn’t help. 

Dr. Law spent most of his time on the island now removing the children’s lungs and fixing them up to mostly normal conditions and Cora had been beside him for most of it. While she didn’t understand the jargon he used, she wanted to learn and kept up a steady stream of questions and commentary on what he did. This had the added bonus of relaxing the child whose heart he was working on. Most of the kids were freaked out by Dr. Law and chose to close their eyes while he worked, but Cora wanted to see it and know. This man was performing miracles and she didn’t want to miss a second.

“What’s that part again?” Cora pointed at the middle of the bisected lung. She thought it was funny that he took it out and cut it in half, but it made sense to do that to work on the inside of it.

“Pulmonary artery.”

“What’s it do?”

“Cora-ya, I’ve answered that already.”

“I forgot, just tell me again.”

Cora watched Law give the biggest fake sigh she’s ever seen and then proceed to explain again how the pulmonary artery carries blood without oxygen from the heart to the lungs. He then went on to explain how that was unique for an artery because most arteries carry blood with oxygen and veins usually carry blood without oxygen. And then he rambled more on the different types of blood vessels and the circulatory system and Cora lost track but kept nodding anyway. Dr. Law seemed to like hearing himself talk about medical stuff and it helped him focus on the task so she humored him despite not understanding a word.

Today was the last day the pirates would be here, Dr. Law only had two children left to see after Mandy. Cora didn’t want them to leave. They had only been in her life for a few days, but already it felt like her world had changed so much. The stories the pirates told of their adventures were sure to fuel the kids’ imaginations for years to come. Giant people that were kind and scary, little people that stole from you but also gave back, an island in the sky, and island under the ocean, an island full of fire and ice, mean pirates and beautiful princesses. The world was so big, and Cora had only ever been to two islands in her life.

But she couldn’t leave here, she had her family here to protect. Cora grew up in an orphanage on an island she couldn’t name anymore. The caretakers there said that she was left on the doorstep one day and they took her in, naming her Corwynna for the little heart birthmark on her cheek. When she was seven years old, the Marines came in saying they were moving all the children under ten to another orphanage and Cora said goodbye to the people that had raised her, but was glad to keep the same siblings she had always known.

Then the mines happened and it only strengthened the bonds between the children. It was their rule to look out for each other however possible, that they would stand together and survive this. As the years passed and older children left to “become Marines” and newer children joined, that mentality never left. Lt Zuri was the only adult they ever let into their circle of trust, and that was only after she returned from their merciless prank testing with smiles and candy for them.

Cora was short for her age and was able to stay long past the time others her age were forced to leave and voluntary took on the role of protector. But now, she was a protector without an enemy, prepared for a battle that was over and won. It was strange and she didn’t know what to do with herself, so she stuck to Dr. Law and tried to learn as much as she could.

“Now the other lung,” Dr. Law muttered to himself as he put the… right lung(?) back into Mandy. Cora took this as her cue and went to fetch him some water. He drank it down gratefully, took a deep breath, and got started on the other side.

Cora was watching him work when Zuri opened the door and poked her head inside.

“Cora, can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Okay! Be right back, Dr. Law.” He made a vague grunting noise in response and Cora pushed off her seat and followed Zuri into the hallway. Cora loved Zuri’s clothes; they were so bright and colorful. Especially now that she didn’t wear the Marine jacket, the many colorful candy bracelets and necklaces she wore were on full display on top of shirts with cute unicorns or ice cream cones. She looked much happier now and Cora was glad she could finally dress the way she wanted to.

Zuri led Cora into her old office, a boring place with a boring desk and chair and cabinets full of boring things, but Cora noticed some more recent additions, too. There was a large fluffy bag chair in the corner now and colorful stickers on the desk. Leaning against one of the walls were picture frames filled with photos of the children taken recently, waiting to be hung up on the walls. Cora could see one of herself hugging the kids around her with huge candy smeared smiles on everyone’s faces.

“Why don’t you sit?” Zuri asked, but Cora knew a command when she heard one and sank down into the bag chair, almost sliding out of it. Zuri sat on the floor in front of her because Zuri never liked sitting at her desk and looked up at Cora with a smile.

“What is it Zuri? Is everything okay?” 

“Oh, yes yes, everything’s great! The water pump still works and the farms are all right as rain. The water mill is still generating electricity for us. We’ll be all set.”

Cora nodded, this was all good news, but Zuri didn’t pull her in here for no reason. “Then what is it?”

“You, darling.” Whatever Cora was expecting, that wasn’t it.

“Me?! What about me?”

Zuri sighed softly and her eyes gentled as she reached out to gab Cora’s hands in hers. Cora almost pulled away, frightened by the intensity of the stare, but this seemed too important to ruin.

“You want to go with them, don’t you?”

Cora shook her head emphatically, “No! I want to stay here! I want to help the kids more!”

“Cora. You can be honest with me, it’s just lil old me after all.”

Cora opened her mouth to say that she was being honest, but she stopped herself. A part of her did want to go with the pirates and see the world. Find out what the ground looked like from the sky or see the depths of the ocean. She wanted to stay with the people that turned her world upside down in an instant and treated it all like it was just another day for them. How many people must have been helped by these pirates for it to be that common an occurrence for them? Could Cora do that, too?

Her heart ached to be a part of it all, but she didn’t want to leave her family behind. They needed her, needed their big sister Cora to protect them, didn’t they? 

“I’m needed here, though,” Cora responded, the only truth she could bring herself to say.

“I want to tell you something, Cora. Your soul is bigger than this island. Your desire to help people could encompass the whole world with its strength. You don’t have to tether yourself to this small island. I know you’ve been their guardian for many years Cora, but you don’t have to protect them anymore. They’ll be alright without you, if you decide you want to leave. You’re welcome to stay of course, but I don’t think that’s what you want.”

Zuri leaned up and wiped a tear away from Cora’s cheek and Cora belatedly realized that she had started crying in the middle of that speech. She stubbornly brought her hand up to her face to wipe the tears away, but as she thought on what Zuri had said, the tears came out faster.

It was hard to swallow that the kids didn’t need her, that they’d be alright without her. Her identity had been built around being their protector. Without that, who would she be? Who was Cora if not the big sister to her family?

“You need to go see the world, Cora, and figure out who you want to be. You’re definitely strong enough to do so, you’re the bravest person I know,” Zuri said like the mind reader Cora knew she was. Overwhelmed by the realization that she did want to leave, Cora hugged Zuri and cried into her shoulder.

“I don’t want to leave you all, though!” Cora blubbered.

“I know, I know. You’ll be alright, darling.”

“You have to be alright, too then!”

“We will be,” Zuri soothed as she rubbed circles into Cora’s back. Cora muttered more nonsense into Zuri’s shoulder while she cried and Zuri let her. She could have stayed like that forever, wrapped up in a hug by someone she knew loved her and felt safe and protected. But she wanted to go see the world even more. To see the vastness of the world and learn all it could give her, and then give back to it, too.  
It was with that resolve in mind that Cora calmed down and pushed off from the former Marine with a tentative smile.

“Thanks, Zuri.”

“Always, Cora. Now, go back and see your doctor pirate friend, make sure he doesn’t push himself too hard.”

Cora’s smile widened at that and she scurried back to the infirmary, head spinning with questions and heart full of something she couldn’t name. Would the pirates accept her if she asked? What would she even do as a pirate? Zuri said the kids were alright, and Cora believed that, but would they miss her? Would she get to come back and see them? Cora knew the answer to that last question was probably no, but she held onto the hope that it might be possible.

As she opened the infirmary door, she was met with the blue dome that meant Dr. Law’s ability was activated. He was sitting in the chair next to one of the beds, Mandy resting with her eyes closed beside him, and turning pieces of a lung around in his hands, muttering to himself quietly. Dr. Law was an incredible person and Cora had indulged herself these past few days by following him around like a duckling. She just wanted to know everything there was about this person who so casually interrupted her life and saved it.

Cora hesitated in the doorway as one thought rang clear to her, echoing in her mind like the clink of axes in the cave. She wanted to save people like he did. Without thinking about it, she’d been trying to save these kids for years and it had just been natural to her. Cora could do that, but on a larger scale. Pay the help she received from Dr. Law forward to others. 

She’d need his help in order to learn how, though.

Filled with determination, she took the empty seat next to Dr. Law and turned to face him. There was no way he had missed her entrance, but he was too focused on his task to acknowledge her. That was fine with Cora, though, she needed the time to figure out what she wanted to say.

All too soon, Dr. Law spoke up, “What did Candy-ya want?” 

“She wanted to ask me about my future,” Cora replied honestly.

“Oh? What specifically?” Law asked, but Cora knew he was only paying her half of his attention. 

“What I’m going to do now that the mines are gone.”

“What’d you say?” 

“I want to save people.”

Dr. Law paused in his work and shifted the chair so he was facing her directly. Cora almost shrunk under his intense stare, but even with his eyes trained on her she couldn’t read him. It almost seemed like he was seeing through her than looking at her. 

With his eyes still trained on her he said, “You want to save people.”

Cora nodded resolutely, but then she lost her nerve and looked away for a second. Now or never, Cora.

“Do you… think that I could be a doctor?”

Cora felt her cheeks flush as she said it, embarrassed to be asking him. Dr. Law was amazing, and asking him if she could be a doctor felt like she was belittling the profession. What qualifications does Cora have to think she could be a doctor? It was preposterous, but after seeing what he could do, she wanted to try. She knew a lot of it came from his devil fruit, but he was also incredibly knowledgeable and that spoke to many hours of studying and dedication.

As the moments ticked by, Cora became more and more certain that asking had been a mistake, but then Law answered her.

“Of course. It will take years of dedicated studying and finding a mentor willing to teach you, but anyone can become a doctor if they are willing to put the effort in.”

“Will you be my mentor?!” Cora blurted out before she could overthink it. Dr. Law almost dropped the piece of lung he was holding, but even he would have to admit that he walked himself into that one. The pirate stared at her blankly for a second and Cora stared right back. He opened his mouth a few times without sound and then his eyebrows furrowed in consternation.

“You know I’m a pirate right? I can’t stay here.”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“I can’t take a child out to sea.”

“I’m almost thirteen! That’s plenty old right?”

Dr. Law’s eyes widened at that, the words “I thought you were younger” written clearly on his expression. Then he went back to a serious expression.

“You’d have to leave your family behind.” 

And that was what hurt Cora the most, never getting to play games with them or tuck them into bed or tell each other stories. It’d sadden her greatly and she was sure she would miss them, but Zuri was right. Here, she would be the big sister forever and while that was good, Cora wanted to be more. Wanted to help more people, the way Dr. Law and the pirates did here. The young girl was suddenly so sure she could make a difference out there.

“I know. I want to go anyway. Zuri will take care of the kids here, and I’ll go find the ones that still need help out there.”

“We’re pirates, you know, not saints.”

“Being a pirate just means you’re free to do what you want, right? And I want to help people that need it.”

Instead of answering, Dr. Law went back to working on the lung and Cora was forced to wait for an answer as he thought about it. Now that they’d stopped talking, she realized her heart was racing and took a few deep breaths to calm down. It didn’t help as much as she would have liked, and she took out one of her knives to fiddle with it as she waited.

The knife slipped out of her grasp and Cora let out a small cry when it cut into her thumb. She put her thumb into her mouth on reflex to stop the bleeding, but it was then that Dr. Law put Mandy’s lung back into her and sent her off to see Zuri for some candy as a reward per Zuri’s request. Then he fixed Cora with an exasperated look, dismissed the dome and got up to look through the medical supplies.

“Here,” Dr. Law said when he came back with bandages and the wound cleaning liquid and Cora obediently held out her bleeding thumb. He cleaned and dressed the wound expertly and then went back to staring at her, and this time he was looking at her and not through her, as if he was seeing her for the first time.

“Ok, Cora-ya. I’ll teach you. It won’t be easy, there’s a lot to learn, but…” and here he trailed off uncertainly for a second, “I think you’ll manage it.”

Cora’s heart swelled again and this time, she knew why. Dr. Law was going to be her teacher, she was going to travel the seas and see the world. Cora would become a doctor and she would save people like she had been. Her eyes lit up in pure excitement, she couldn’t wait to get started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the prologue! Now the rest of the story with Cora as the newest member of the Heart Pirates. Next chapter is introductions to the rest of the Heart Pirates and Cora trying to figure out her place. I hope you're all enjoying Law and Cora's interactions so far, this is only the start. I have a lot of different ideas for bonding moments between them and the rest of the crew, but if you have something let me know! Or just tell me your thoughts, I'd love to hear them.


	4. A Quest for Bear Hugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cora is introduced to the Heart Pirates, tries really hard to get a hug from Bepo, and attends her first pirate party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we move on to the story! This does have a real plot, somehow it appeared in planning for the rest of the chapters. With that, there's going to be at least 12 chapters, probably more if the way this ballooned from like 5k words to 8k words is anything to go by. Hope y'all like long stories because this train ain't stopping any time soon. Onwards!
> 
> TW:  
> None

CORA

The Heart Pirates’ ship was not what Cora was expecting when she thought of pirate ships. The Thousand Sunny was much closer to what she thought it should look like, big with large sails and skull and crossbones on it. The lion head was strange, but it still looked like what Cora would draw a pirate ship as. The Polar Tang was a yellow submarine, and while it had a large smile and ‘DEATH’ painted on the sides, nothing else about it looked piratey. It looked like it belonged in a children’s song about little kids adventuring together.

The inside more than made up for the outside appearance. It had high tech medical equipment across two different rooms and a lab area with rows of labeled bottles that could have been a different language for all the sense they made. There was a workout area next to a recreational area and a library with more books than she thought possible in a small submarine. It rivaled the base’s library in size, and that had been impressive to Cora when she first saw it. The kitchen area was Cora’s favorite place, though, with two long tables and sleek countertops corralled around a large stovetop that got frequent use. It looked like the homiest place on the ship, the place where the most laughs were had and that was what made it her favorite.

The biggest issue on a small submarine was space, an issue they ran into immediately when Cora asked where she should put her trunk down. It wasn’t a large trunk by any means, but that brought up where she was going to sleep and Dr. Law didn’t have a good answer for her.

“The double rooms are all full,” he explained as they walked by them and Cora read the names on each door, “and while there are beds below for patients, I’d rather keep that area clean and you’d be isolated from the crew if something happened while you slept.”

“I don’t need a lot of room,” Cora said trying to be helpful.

“I know. We have a futon we could put somewhere, but most places see heavy foot traffic. The lounge area would probably be the best bet, but people would walk by there at night to get to the bathroom…” Dr. Law mused as he led her through said area and Cora noticed a large couch across from the bookshelf.

“I could sleep on that,” Cora said and pointed to the couch. 

Dr. Law shook his head, “short term that would be fine but the couch isn’t meant for long term sleeping. It would lead to neck and back problems with continued use.”

Cora nodded as if that made perfect sense and they passed the bathroom into the library. The library was just bookshelves lining the wall, a small couch and a desk a book left open on it. Dr. Law was looking at the floor space, probably trying to judge if a futon could fit there (it could, but there was nowhere to store it when not in use that wouldn’t ruin it) so Cora walked around to peer up the staircase.

“What’s up there?”

“My room,” Dr. Law replied distracted.

Cora hesitated, knowing this would come off as intrusive, but their options were running out, “is there room for the futon up there?”

Dr. Law paused and turned to look at her. He had an intense stare when he was considering something with an impassive expression and Cora figured that was something she was going to have to get used to if she was going to learn under him.

Cora was going to become a doctor. That thought still sent little shivers of excitement through her when she remembered it. It wasn’t a path she had ever thought to go down, but then again, she hadn’t expected to make it out of the Marine base either. With how long she stayed in the mines, she was sure that she was going to get sick like everyone else did and just die from that. 

“Staying in my room would also be the most logical place to ensure your safety should we get attacked,” Law responded nearly a minute later, “we can set up privacy screens around the futon in a corner of the room. Is that alright with you?”

“Sure, why not?”

Cora had lived her whole life sharing a room with others, just beds lined up against a wall with each child’s name written on a piece of paper stuck to the end of it. It would probably be weirder for her to sleep in an empty room if anything. How else would she fall asleep if she didn’t hear the soft sighs and rustles letting her know that she was surrounded by people she loved? People that she left behind to pursue adventure… This was a terrible idea, she should go back, tell Zuri she wasn’t ready, say-

But Dr. Law was leading the way to his room and surprise surprise, there was another large bookshelf and desk up here, this one littered with papers. There was also a large bed (neatly made) and medium sized dresser, a small room that was probably a bathroom, and a door that led to the top deck Cora saw from the outside. Behind the stairs was a potted plant that could easily be moved to make room for a futon and a small trunk.

Dr. Law left to get the extra privacy screens and futon, so Cora took that time to open up her trunk and go through it. She left her sets of work clothes and underwear in the trunk among some books and small trinkets, but pulled out some pictures that she could display on the floor using the trunk to hold them in place. Most were drawings some of the kids made her, Mandy and Wyrt were some of the best artists and drew a portrait of Cora and the base’s play area respectively, but Cora liked Finn’s crayon stick figure drawing the best because he gave everyone huge smiles. Zuri also took some pictures the last few days and developed them just in time for Cora to leave; one was of Cora and Zuri hugging and another was a group shot of all the kids stacked around the play area, but there was also one that Zuri had taken of the pirates (all the ones that didn’t mind being in the picture) that she had taken to remember who had saved them. The pictures Cora had were copies of the real ones, but that didn’t matter. 

By the time Cora had sorted out all the pictures, Dr. Law returned with the futon bundled up in his arms and the huge polar bear Cora had seen around trailed behind him with the privacy screen setup. Cora tried hard not to stare at him, but she hadn’t gotten a chance to see him up close yet. He looked like a giant stuffed bear that moved and Cora wanted to hug him and see how soft he was but recognized that he was not a toy and would probably not appreciate her randomly hugging him.

Cora hung back while they set up, spinning her knife around in her hand to distract herself from staring at the polar bear, and was surprised when she looked back that they were already done.

“Cora-ya, this is Bepo,” Dr. Law pointed his thumb at the polar bear as he came to stand behind the doctor, “He’s my first mate, our crew’s navigator and primary communicator, and my best friend for a long time. If you need something and can’t find me, he’s a good second choice.”

“Nice to meet you, my name is Corwynna but you can just call me Cora,” Cora said with a small bow. Marines were big on manners and while Cora didn’t usually practice them, they appeared to be her default setting when she was nervous. Good information to know.

“Your name isn’t Cora?” Dr. Law asked at the same time Bepo tried to respond, “It’s nice to meet you, too Cora.”

The two looked at each other and immediately the bear apologized and Dr. Law repeated his question.

“Oh, no. The orphanage named me Corwynna for the heart birthmark, but lots of the younger kids had trouble pronouncing it so they started saying Cora instead. It just stuck after that.”

The doctor and first mate blinked at her and then Law asked, “Also for the record, you’re almost thirteen years old, correct?”

Cora nodded and Bepo looked between the two of them warily, like they were a volleyball game going back and forth. Dr. Law took one more look around the room and then back to Cora.

“The crew is all gathered in the kitchen downstairs waiting to meet you. I figured getting them all together for one introduction was sufficient. Do you want to come see them?”

Cora didn’t know why he bothered asking when he already decided to do it like this, but she agreed anyway. No need to start a fight over something that didn’t matter. 

As Law led the way downstairs, Cora snuck glances at Bepo. On a second look, he was much gentler than she might have thought. He handled the privacy screens with care and he moved lightly for someone so big. Even as they walked down the metal stairs she could hardly hear his steps. Or Dr. Law’s for that matter. More secret pirate skills Cora would have to learn.

The rest of the Heart Pirates were scattered around the kitchen counter and closest table in various states of standing or sitting, but all jumped up to attention when they saw Dr. Law turn the corner at the bottom of the stairs.

“You know you don’t have to do that,” Law said with an exasperated sigh and two of the men just turned to each other and grinned at the statement. One had a hat with PENGUIN written on it (and a small penguin on top) and the other had red hair tucked under a black and white hat with sunglasses on. Cora marked them as the troublemakers of the crew and to be wary of anything they tried to rope her into. 

“We don’t?” one of the others asked. He had a sharp, angular face and narrow eyes, but most notably was his hair that defied gravity to stick out in front of him with a fwoosh. 

“You definitely do, Swabbie,” a woman replied smirking at him. She had a yellow beanie cap and earrings with brown hair that poofed out behind her. Cora had seen her around and already liked her.

“Okay, okay, enough squabbling,” Dr. Law spoke up before “Swabbie” could say anything and everyone quieted down. “This is Cora and she’s going to apprentice with me for the foreseeable future so I expect you to help her out and mind your manners. That means watching your language and not dragging her into dangerous things.” Dr. Law looked pointedly at the two Cora identified as troublemakers and they gave him big grins in response.

“Captain, we would never do such a thing!” the red haired one protested.

“Wait, does giving her alcohol count as dangerous?” the penguin one asked.

“Yes. Alcohol consumption by minors has been shown to cause developmental problems later in life.”

“Is that what happened to you, Shachi? Or were you born dumb?” the woman from before asked.

Shachi looked like he was about to respond, but Dr. Law began to unsheathe his sword and everyone stopped again. 

“No giving minors alcohol, tobacco or any other drugs not prescribed because of an illness. This shouldn’t need to be repeated.”

“Just giving you a hard time, Captain. And this is supposed to be introductions, right? I’ll go first. My name is Shachi. I make the torpedoes and other weapons we use on the ship as well as act as the anesthesiologist when performing surgery.” That was the red haired man with the hat and sunglasses and at Cora’s confused look he further explained, “I give you the good drugs to put you to sleep safely during surgery and make sure you wake up correctly.”

That didn’t explain as much as he probably thought it did, Cora had never been in surgery before, but she pretended it made sense and then the penguin hatted man spoke up.

“I’m Penguin, I use the sonar on the ship to find other ships and facilitate targeting them. For my medical role, I study how diseases affect tissues and organs to try and diagnose them.”

“Does everyone have two roles?” Cora asked sensing a common pattern starting.

“Pretty much, some have more,” Shachi answered. There was a moment of silence as no one was sure who should go next and then the biggest man Cora had ever seen stepped forward from the back row and into sight. He was at least twice as tall as Bepo with massive neck and upper body muscles. His face was long square and with black sideburns framing it and what could only be called a mane of black hair crowning his head and trailing down his back. He looked like a beast.

“I am Jean Bart. I used to be my own pirate captain, but was sold into slavery and rescued by Captain Trafalgar. Now, I am the helmsman for the Heart Pirates and I am learning to be a clinical pathologist. That means I run the lab tests that are more generic,” the beast now known as Jean Bart said. He had a strange accent, each syllable was heavily pronounced and it seemed like he spoke carefully because of it.

“I run lab tests, too, but mine are more specific and less used,” Penguin added in. Cora suddenly realized that they were explaining this in detail to her because Dr. Law said she would be his apprentice and they were trying to help teach her. She felt bad now that she had been pretending to understand what they were saying before and resolved that she would try to commit what they said to memory more and ask Dr. Law later.

“Well, I’ll go next,” the poofy haired woman said, “the name’s Ikkaku. I make sure the medical equipment we use here stays in tip top shape. My specialty is radiology, that means I study how electromagnetic waves can be used to find out stuff about diseases and I work the imaging machines to give us good pictures of what’s happening in your body.”

Core vaguely understood electromagnetic waves as light and other stuff, but everything else made good sense to her. She knew there was a reason why she liked Ikkaku the best; she was definitely winning the simplest explanation game so far.

“Uni, you’re up next,” Ikkaku called out and stepped aside for a tall man to come forward. Uni had a mask pulled up to cover his nose and stood maybe a foot taller than Bepo (who had become Cora’s default measuring stick so she had more excuses to look at him.) His hair was brown and spiky, but drooped down at the front to partially cover his eyes like Cora’s bangs did, leaving only a small strip of his face visible.

“I’m Uni. I’m the shipwright. I’m learning to use the surgical medical equipment.”

There was a lapse in silence as the crew waited to see if he would continue before Shachi said, “Is that all you got?” Uni nodded once, sharply, before he stepped back behind everyone and someone else stepped forward. They had dirty blonde hair mostly hidden under a purple hood and a square-ish nose.

“My name is Clione and I’m the primary chef on the Polar Tang. I am also the dietician here and can answer questions you may have related to food.”

That was easy enough. Next to him was someone in a white mask with reddish brown hair spiked around and behind it. They waved at Cora when she looked at them, the mask’s smile widening as the eyes rounded upwards like an upside smile. Cora managed to stop herself from visibly reacting to that, but they must have noticed anyway because they frowned at her.

“This is Kani,” Dr. Law said, “for their own reasons they don’t talk and communicate with sign language. Most of the crew is passably fluent with it and anyone can teach you the basics if you want to learn. Kani is also an excellent charades player, though, and can communicate that way, too.”

Kani nodded their head and proceeded to act out their job for Cora. They held up one finger and then mimed holding a piece of paper in their hands and reading it before taking an imaginary pen and crossing out lines and adding lines in. Next, they drew a picture on it, gave it a last look and passed it over to Shachi who mimed taking the piece of paper. Shachi looked at the paper and then began hammering at something, looked back at the paper, and then screwed onto whatever he was making. When he seemed finished, he had Kani look it over and when Kani gave him a thumbs up, he picked up the thing he’d built and mimed putting it somewhere. Penguin joined in at this point, looking intently at something in front of him and tracking it with his eyes before he pointed at it and then all three of them looked to Law as if waiting for his signal. Law, whose ever present frown was twitching, gave in and nodded and Shachi pressed an imaginary button. The whole crew now seemed to be in on it and watched as an imaginary thing moved through the sub and then Kani appeared on the other side of the sub to where everyone’s eyes were tracking and mimed getting hit by something and falling over.

It was a masterful performance and Cora completely forgot what it was she was supposed to be getting from that.

“They design the weapons Shachi builds and also act as our psychologist to talk with people when they need it,” Law deadpanned to the collective “aw”-ing and booing of the group at ruining the game. “Hitode, you’re up next.”

“Me? Ok,” a younger man said from the back of the group, stepping out from behind Clione. He was the least intimidating of the crew Cora had seen so far with a newsboy cap pulled in front of his eyes and long wavy brown hair. While the rest of the crew looked to be in some kind of fighting shape, Hitode looked like Cora could do more pushups than him and if she hit him on the arm he’d start crying.

“I take care of the supplies logistics for the Polar Tang and am the pharmacist for the crew, but I’m also studying other disciplines under Dr. Trafalgar. As a pharmacist, my job is to know how the drugs we use affect the body and to make them if necessary.”

Hitode went to stand behind Clione again, and Cora’s attention shifted to the last three people in the room. A muscular blond man as tall as Uni was, but with way more muscle, a woman with long blonde hair not in the uniform everyone else was in but a white dress with a bell skirt and dangling tassels, and the man with the fwoosh hair.

“Pleasure ta meet ya, Cora, I’m Tako and this is ma sistah, Jelli,” the muscular blond man introduced himself and pointed to the woman next to him, “I’m backup weapons technician, which means I usually end up lugging the big ol things around for them two. I’m also the physical therapist so I ‘elp patients recover their strength correctly after an illness.” Cora tried to pay attention to his words, but his accent was a thick drawl and he dropped syllables while speaking. She got the main parts of it, though.

“I’m Jelli, and I’m a patient here on the Polar Tang for a chronic illness Dr. Trafalgar is helping me with. I mostly do administrative work on the ship, keeping track o’ records. Dr. Trafalgar and Bepo here have been teaching me to be a nurse, too, so if you get sick I’ll be sure to make sure they’re taking good care o’ ya.” The sister had the same thick accent as the brother, but her voice was melodic and easy to listen to.

Everyone stared down the last person until he finally scratched as his head and caved in, exclaiming loudly, “Fine! My name’s Maguro but everyone here calls me Swabbie because I’m the new guy. I ain’t got a specialty yet, I keep the ship clean and work communications when Bepo gets busy. They’re trying to get me to be a medical assistant, but I’m not buying it. I ain’t got the brains for that.”

Next to her, Cora heard Dr. Law mutter something to Bepo who started apologizing quietly. 

“Now, Swabbie, even I learned to be a lab technician, and I didn’t know anything about medicine. You stick around here and you will learn over time,” Jean Bart said from the back row.

Swabbie grumbled a response to that and crossed his arms petulantly and Cora was reminded of trying to get the children to eat healthily at meal time. 

As strange as the crew was, they seemed like they all got along well and took care of each other. They bantered back and forth seamlessly and picked up on each other’s joke with the ease only people who have spent a long time in close quarters do. They were a family.

It made Cora miss hers terribly.

“You know what a new crew member means?” Law interrupted the conversation with a sharp smile. The crew all adopted identical smiles and turned to face Cora expectantly. Their expression scared her a little bit, not sure what suddenly came over all of them, and then Penguin yelled out, “Party!”

The crew erupted in various cheers and scattered to the ends of the ship to prepare. Dr. Law called out to them to set everything up on the deck outside, and then it was just Dr. Law, Bepo and Cora hanging around the kitchen area.

“Do you want some water?” Bepo asked as he walked into the kitchen.

“Yes, please!” 

Dr. Law went to grab a mug and coffee as Bepo filled up three glasses with water, putting one glass back when he saw the captain with his coffee mug. Cora took up a position at the counter, slipping off the first time and banging her knee on the counter, but she managed to sit correctly the second time. Bepo passed her a glass and came to sit down next to her, but Dr. Law stayed on the opposite side, leaning on the counter, and Cora wondered if that was just his thing. She remembered him leaning on the tabletop in the infirmary, too. Maybe she’d ask him later. Right now, she was content to swing her legs back and forth in the silence.

And try not to stare at the polar bear next to her. He was so close now, though! And his fur looked so soft. If she just pretended to be Dr. Law and leaned right a little bit, she could probably brush against him. But that would just be awkward and Cora was trying to make a good impression with Dr. Law’s best friend and the second in command of the ship.

“You want to hug Bepo, don’t you?” Dr. Law asked with a mischievous smirk, turning to put his elbows on the countertop. Cora’s face immediately flamed red. Was she that obvious? She glanced at Bepo who glanced back at her, his eyes squinting in her direction.

“I-I… I mean…” Cora fumbled, unsure how she was supposed to respond to that. Dr. Law’s smirk only grew wider like a shark sensing blood in the water.

“He gives the best hugs you know.”

“It’s true,” Bepo confirmed, “polar bears give vastly superior hugs than humans.”

None of this was an invitation to hug him, though, and Dr. Law knew that. He was taunting her. Unfortunately for him, Cora didn’t get the title as the biggest troublemaker on the Marine base without developing her exit strategies.

She quickly thought of all the sad things in her life, her friends dying, her loneliness at leaving her family, that one story about the mom and her child, and let the tears well up. Her lip quivered and she sniffled for good measure, and then the tears started pouring down her cheeks.

The reaction was immediate. Dr. Law’s eyes widened and she could read the mumbled “oh shit” on his lips and he turned to Bepo in a panic. Cora looked down, as if trying to hide her tears and tensed her shoulders up for good measure. She missed the silent exchange between captain and first mate, but she felt the furry arms wrap around her and the startled gasp she let out was real. Polar bear hugs were definitely the best hugs, Cora decided as she reclined against Bepo and let the warmth envelope her. Even through the uniform Cora could feel how soft he was as she hesitantly brought her arms up to squeeze back.

When Bepo released the hug, Cora wiped at her eyes again and gave Dr. Law the most self-satisfied grin she could and watched gleefully as understanding dawned on the pirate captain’s face.

“You little brat,” he said, but the tone wasn’t in anger but amazement and he appeared kind of impressed. Cora would count that as a win for her.

Cora cleaned up in the bathroom after that and Dr. Law led her outside onto the deck. They were some of the last people to arrive and most had already formed their groups. The band was setting up on the far end of the deck, talking quietly to each other. Another group had put out a long folding table and chairs on one side of the deck and were arranging different card and dice games along it. Next to that was another long table laden with food, a bunch of easy to make items but there was still room to put more plates down. The opposite side of the deck had smaller round tables and chairs for groups to sit and talk in, but one looked crowded with people staring each other down across the table.

“They’re getting ready for the usual drinking game between the Straw Hats and the Heart Pirates,” Law explained when he saw where Cora was looking.

“Drinking game?” Cora asked, unsure what that meant. It probably had something to do with alcohol, but how it was a game she didn’t understand. She regretted the question immediately when Dr. Law brought that smirk back out.

“We’ll go see it later,” Dr. Law promised and led them over to a pair of people talking near the railing.

Cora wanted to press him to explain it now, but he was already moving to one of the smaller tables occupied by a woman with tan skin and long dark hair Cora had seen around but didn’t know. She was reading a book, but looked up when they approached.

“Good afternoon, Nico-ya.”

“Good evening, doctor. This must be Cora, then. My name is Nico Robin, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” the woman introduced with a friendly smile. For some reason, the smile threw Cora off, or maybe it was how adult the woman seemed that intimidated her. Cora wasn’t the nervous type, but years of Marines smiling at her as they tried to convince her that working in the mines was harmless as they got sick taught her to be wary of people who smiled so friendly without reason.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Cora responded politely and subtly hid behind Dr. Law. 

“Oh my, it seems that I’ve spooked her,” Robin commented with the same smile. Cora avoided eye contact and instead traced the wood grain on the deck, her heart thumping louder in her chest. Was this what all the interactions were going to be like for her? Didn’t these pirates prove they were good people when they rescued the kids? Cora shouldn’t be afraid of them, but she couldn’t help the trill of fear running through her. No, she wouldn’t be scared. Being scared never helped her, being brave did.

“You alright there, Cora-ya?”

“I’m fine!” Cora told him flashing him a big smile. If she smiled, she would be okay. Dr. Law didn’t look fooled, but Cora wasn’t smiling for him, she was smiling for herself. 

Putting her rising fear aside, she asked, “What book are you reading?”

“It’s called ‘Beyond the Hills.’ A horror story about a factory that…” and Robin stopped there for some reason, her smile faltering for a second before she continued on, “creates zombies.”

“Is it good?” Cora continued as she sat across from the long haired woman and Dr. Law sat next to her.

“It’s not my favorite, but I think it’s good. Do you like to read, Cora?”

Cora nodded, “the Marine base had a good library they let us go into once a week to borrow books. I read a lot of adventure stories and history books and uh… leadership books. The Marines had lots of leadership books and biographies written by Marines.”

“What’s your favorite book?”

“Um… ‘Liar Noland’ was a popular one among the kids, but there was one biography I read a lot from called ‘Clean Justice’ written by Vice Admiral Tsuru. She’s a badass by the way.”

“What did she say was clean justice then?” Robin asked and Cora found herself excited by the question. None of the other kids liked reading the biographies, mostly sticking to fictional books, and former Lt Zuri was usually too busy to have long conversations with her about the books she read.

“It’s, like, following through on what you do. That it’s not enough to just follow the law, but to uphold the integrity behind it. She gave an example of a man she had to put to death for his crimes, but going back to help take care of his wife and children. That his crimes were not theirs and they shouldn’t be punished for it and it was the Marines’ job to see the consequences of their actions and mitigate them. She also talked a lot about interacting with people, how to counsel those above her without being… uh, oh there was a word… impertinent and lead those under you by inspiring them. It helped a lot in trying to get the kids to listen to me.”

Dr. Law and Robin both stared at her in silence for a moment and Cora wondered what she had said. Oh, right, they were pirates and here she was gushing about some Marine. It’s not her fault that so many of the books were heavily focused on Marines! Did pirates even write books? 

Cora was busy hiding her embarrassment so she was startled when Robin started chuckling and looking at Dr. Law he was fighting back a grin, too.

“Wh-what?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect to get a lesson on justice this evening. It’s nice to hear that some Marines would go the extra mile like that,” Robin commented.

“Did you bring the book with you?” Dr. Law asked and he stared at her impassively.

“I did, Zuri let me keep some of my favorite books from the library and gave me a few more to read, too.”

“I’d like to read it sometime, if that’s okay.”

“So would I,” Robin added on and Cora could tell they were both genuine in their requests so she quickly agreed to let them borrow it and the three talked more about different books they’d read. Sometimes the discussions Robin and Law had went over her head, but she tried to keep up as best she could and ask smart questions.

They were in the middle of discussing a book Dr. Law recently read when music started playing. It was an upbeat song, the violin bow moving quickly and the skeleton she had seen before was playing it. She didn’t understand how a moving skeleton existed, but here he was playing the violin, so she filed it away in the box with other secret pirate skills.

Also up there were Tako and Jelli, playing the drums and a small harp respectively, on either side of the skeleton. The primary instrument of the song playing was the violin, so it made sense that… they? he? would be in the middle. The drums kept a steady beat though and drew many of the people that were hanging around into the center of the deck to dance.

The dancing was unlike Cora had seen before. She’d snuck in to witness the Marine functions on base before, the few times the families of the workers were allowed to visit and see their spouses, and the dancing then had always been regal and well defined. And then there was the bobbing/flailing the kids did, without rhythm or coordination when one of them made up a song or tried to sing one they had heard somewhere. Cora had tried to learn the steps the Marines used when dancing in pairs, but without someone to practice and only a faraway view of it, she never got beyond the basics of how you hold the person and move in a vague circle.

The pirates all did something different on the dance floor as if they were all listening to a different song with the same beat. The cyborg, Franky if Cora remembered correctly, had asked Robin to dance and they were dancing nicely together like Cora had seen the Marines dance, but Shachi and Penguin were dancing together too in an overly flamboyant version of the same dance where they exaggerated each movement to comical degrees. Hitode had his eyes closed and was moving his hands as if conducting the music as it played. The man with the straw hat who could only be Captain Luffy dragged Sanji, whose name she especially remembered because he saved her, into a dance too and that one involved a lot of spinning in circles together and lots of yelling on Sanji’s part to the other man’s laughter. Kani was dancing by themselves, but it was with a smooth grace as they lunged and glided across the floor and then swirled into a tall stretch. 

Cora was fascinated by the whole thing and wondered if she’d ever be able to join in and feel a part of all that chaos.

“You can join them, you know,” Dr. Law informed her.

Cora shook her head rapidly and clenched her fists in her lap as she confessed, “I can’t dance well.”

“Neither can Strawhat-ya. That’s not stopping him at all.”

Looking up at the two men dancing together, Captain Luffy indeed had no rhythm at all. Sanji looked like he was trying to wrangle the man into some semblance of a dance, and it would work for a few seconds, but then his partner would pull him close or spin him in a circle and break the rhythm.

Cora shook her head again, she couldn’t be like that. Dr. Law shrugged at her and settled back into his seat.

“Can you dance?” she asked.

“Somewhat decently. Better than that. I just don’t care to.”

Dr. Law seemed like he was decently good at everything so Cora easily accepted he could dance and let her mind wander around the deck again. Bepo, Uni, Swabbie and best story teller ever Usopp were playing a card game together and Cora watched as Swabbie won the round and everyone else at the table groaned in defeat and pushed some chips around. She wondered what game they were playing and if she might know it. Over years of spying on the Marines, the kids had picked up a few different card games to play and Cora was the undeniable champion for most of them. She recognized that this was probably because she was the oldest, but even when she wasn’t she won more times than not.

“You can go and get a closer look. Don’t have to stick by me the whole time,” Dr. Law suggested.

“Okay,” Cora agreed hesitantly and got up, giving a backward glance at the doctor. He made a shooing motion when she did, so she stuck her tongue out at him and continued to the table without looking back.

The table was quiet as she approached, Uni dealing out the cards and Cora recognized the game as poker. Cora stood behind Bepo as the only person she really knew and saw that he had the 9 of hearts and 4 of hearts; it was a decent hand. 

“Call,” Bepo said, and threw two white chips into the middle on top of three other white chips. Everyone else around the table threw two white chips in and Uni flipped over the next three cards, 4 of spades, 10 of hearts, and 5 of clubs. Looking up at the other players, Cora saw Usopp quickly hide a grin behind a cough and Uni scowled at his hand. They were terrible at masking their emotions. Swabbie’s expression didn’t change at all.

Bepo started the round with a “check” and everyone followed suit until Usopp called for a “raise,” threw in a red chip, and everyone at the table groaned and also threw a red chip in.

“Did you get a good hand then?” Cora directed across the table at Usopp, startling the serious group. He looked at her critically for a second and then smiled more broadly.

“I have the best hand! I’m going to get a royal flush out of this one!” Just looking at the cards told Cora the likelihood of this was small, but she didn’t comment on that.

“How can you get a royal flush when we have the ace of hearts?” she asked innocently. The table turned to look at her and then at Bepo in surprise, but the polar bear didn’t even flinch.

“Oh, sorry, is this one of those games where people don’t talk?”

“You can talk, just try not to ruin the game,” Swabbie said almost glaring at her. Of the members of the Heart pirates, he was by far her least favorite. During the introductions, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there and when she saw him around before he was rude to everyone. 

“I’ll be quiet then.”

Uni flipped the next card over, an 8 of diamonds, and Usopp visibly deflated a little bit. 

Bepo called “check” again, but this time Swabbie called a raise and threw in a blue chip. Uni folded, but Usopp called it and Bepo hesitated for a moment before shrugging and throwing a blue chip in.

The last card was a 2 of diamonds and Usopp made a good effort to hide his disappointment, but his clenched teeth belied his true feelings. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Swabbie also look at Usopp and began to make a show of trying to contain her excitement and squeezing her hands together. She couldn’t see his reaction because she was staring intently at the cards, but if he was a good player he’d be trying to judge Bepo’s reaction to the cards and see hers.

Bepo probably went to say check again, he seemed like Yomi or Mandy who always called check because they didn’t know what else to do, but stopped himself when Cora made an aborted motion to pick up his chips.

“Cora?”

“Oh sorry, I just thought…” Cora trailed off uncertainly, looking at his hand to him.

“You wanted to throw some chips in?” Bepo asked. Cora nodded and he shrugged at her, “alright, you can if you want to.”

Cora grinned at him and picked up a green chip. She didn’t know exactly what the colors meant, but from how they had them laid out, this one was worth more than the others they had thrown in. Bepo didn’t stop her for whatever reason, maybe he didn’t care about the money and just liked playing, but Usopp and Swabbie both looked at her incredulously.

“You’re just going to let her throw a 25 piece in?” Usopp questioned.

“Sure, why not?” Bepo responded easily. Cora looked at him and couldn’t read his face. He may not care much about winning, but he sure had a hard expression to read.

“Well, I’m out then,” Usopp claimed and put his cards face down.

Swabbie looked at the cards on the table, at Bepo and then at Cora, sliding one of the white chips between his fingers before he, too, put his cards face down and folded. 

“Alright, you win, then. What did you have?” Swabbie said and gestured for Bepo to lay his cards out. He did so as everyone else flipped theirs over and Swabbie slammed his hands on the table with a cry of “Dammit!” and pointed at Cora. “You lied about his hand!” Swabbie had a King of hearts and 10 of diamonds and would have won if he hadn’t folded.

“Oh, is that not allowed?” Cora asked genuinely. With the kids, lying about your cards was fair game. Bribing another kid to look at someone’s cards and tell you what they had was also fair game. Bribing that kid so they’d lie to the person who initially bribed them was fair game. Switching cards around was fair game until you got caught and then you had to forfeit all the candy you’d won over (Zuri usually supplied candy to bet on for the games) Anything that was not directly looking at someone else’s cards was fair game.

“Of course not!” Swabbie yelled, but Usopp disagreed.

“Technically, it doesn’t break any of the rules. You don’t have to listen to someone when they say what’s in their hand.”

“It ruins the spirit of the game! It’s cheating!”

“We’re pirates. Cheating and stealing is what we do.”

“Did I win?” Bepo asked, confused as he looked at everyone’s cards.

“You did!” Cora congratulated him and he shrugged and took the money from the middle. Swabbie looked enraged as he gathered the cards to shuffle them and Cora decided not to act in the next game and just watch. 

The hands passed by quickly and people got up to leave and newcomers joined in as the rounds passed by. Cora got food (some fish and rice thing in a tangy sauce that was the best meal she’d ever had) and then spent the rounds watching the people as they played, learning who was good at the game and who wasn’t. Kani, for having a mask that hid their features, was surprisingly bad at the game and managed to convey all their emotions through the mask somehow. Shachi and Penguin were decent at it, but after some time Cora picked up on their tells like she did on Uni’s. Swabbie was the hardest to read, mostly because he was frowning even when he had a good hand.

When the five playing got bored of poker and switched to a dice game Cora didn’t know, she decided it was a good time to see what else was happening on the deck and found lots of people gathered around the table she saw before. Curious, she left the games table and walked over hearing a lot of cheering coming from it and decided to find out what the drinking game was.

Seated on opposite sides of the table and facing each other were Nami and a green haired man Cora wasn’t introduced to yet against Ikkaku and Jean Bart who was seated on the floor and not in a chair. At the head of the table was Clione who was looking at each person critically, but for what Cora didn’t know. As she watched, Chopper, a reindeer person doctor that was older than her but also somehow looked like a toddler, brought over another round of drinks and passed them out to the four people at the table. 

Ikkaku gagged like she was about to hurl, and Clione turned to her and said, “Ikkaku, you’re out.”

“What?! I can -urp- totally have another- oh no I definitely can’t,” Ikkaku tried to reach out for a drink but then stopped and laid her head down on the table.

“Guess it’s just you now big guy,” Nami said with a smirk and pushed Ikkaku’s forgotten drink off to the side. Bepo leaned forward from where he was watching and snatched it up.

“Does not bother me,” he said in his strange accent and Cora watched as the three still in chugged their drinks together. While Nami was staring down Jean Bart fiercely and Jean Bart at least acknowledged the look, the green haired man, swordsman? yes he had three swords strapped to his waist, didn’t look like he even understood he was in a competition. 

“So the game is to drink until you get sick?” Cora asked no one in particular.

“Yes, it is a game of constitution. Last one standing wins,” Bepo answered her and Cora noticed the drink was already gone. It was maybe five seconds ago he picked it up, how did he… another secret pirate skill to add to the list.

“That sounds dumb. Being sick isn’t fun.”

“That’s why Clione is the judge, he makes sure to stop anyone before they get too sick.”

Cora nodded because that seemed like a good idea to her. Watching the Marines, they tended to drink until they passed out somewhere and Cora never understood why that was a thing. She never liked the drunk Marines, they were quicker to get angry and more likely to hit her for doing something wrong, so she did her best to steer the other kids away from them when she could or direct their anger at her if it came to it.

Suddenly not interested in the drinking game anymore, she glanced around and saw that Captain Luffy had stopped dancing and was trying to convince Dr. Law to dance with him if the pulling on his arms was any indication. Dr. Law refused, though, so Captain Luffy pouted at him and slumped on top of the doctor, trying to be as much of a nuisance as possible. Cora thought Dr. Law would push him off immediately, but he just let the man stay there instead. 

Dr. Law caught her staring at him, so she gave him a small wave and he raised a hand back to her, catching Captain Luffy’s attention. The straw hatted man looked at her and then back at Dr. Law, and after a quick discussion he got up and stretched his arms so they soared above Cora’s head. She watched him as he rocketed above her and landed with his feet on the wall and one arm holding onto the railing on top of it as he grinned down at her. Even though she had seen him stretch a lot on the island, it was still a weird thing to watch, even knowing it was a devil fruit ability.

“Hi! I’m Monkey D. Luffy and I’m going to be King of the Pirates! What’s your name?”

Cora didn’t respond and instead inched behind Bepo a little bit. He didn’t look particularly intimidating, more like a large and carefree child. But she thought of all the stories Usopp had told her and the kids about the destruction the man had caused and Cora knew he was stronger than he looked and could be scary when he got mad. 

“Ah, you’re going to be like Chopper then, aren’t you?” Captain Luffy said as he dropped down to land on the deck and walked to stand in front of her.

“What?”

“He hid when I first met him, too. Never saw many people and we spooked him quite a bit. But he came around eventually so I’m sure you will, too.”

“I’m not hiding!” Cora said and stepped out from behind Bepo to stare the straw hat man down. Her heart was pounding in her chest, expecting him to reprimand her or tell her that she obviously was just hiding, but he did neither of those things and instead bent down a little so he was at her eye level. Hiding was no good, though, you had to face your fears head on.

“Shishishi, good! I’ll introduce myself again then, Monkey D. Luffy, future King of the Pirates!”

And while Cora knew she was probably supposed to introduce herself, as was proper, her mouth had a mind of its own and asked, “there’s a King of the Pirates?”

“Well, there’s only ever been one, Gol D. Roger, but he was executed years ago. So I’m going to be the next one.”

“How do you do that?” 

Cora knew she made a mistake when Captain Luffy just grinned widely at her and began to talk her ear off about his adventures. As he told stories, other people joined in and Cora spent the rest of the night listening to the pirates recount their grand adventures, asking questions where appropriate and gasping in all the right places. Occasionally Usopp would tell a story and someone else would whisper what really happened to her and he’d swear up and down that his version was true anyway.

When Cora couldn’t fight back yawning anymore, Dr. Law suggested she could to bed early and while Cora protested at first, she could feel her eyes drooping shut and she didn’t want to fall asleep and be carried to bed. So she made her way back into the yellow submarine, up the stairs to the top room and tucked herself into her futon with the curtains mostly drawn around her. 

Glancing back at the photos she had put out earlier, she got a little homesick thinking of all the kids she left behind and Zuri. But then she remembered Captain Luffy and Usopp acting out one of their adventures with a pitcher on their heads to represent an air bubble they used and the loneliness she felt faded into something sweeter. She put one family behind her, but she had a gained a new pirate family instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of my favorite chapters to write because I could FINALLY just let the Heart Pirates interact with each other. I put a lot of effort into them, and this is only the beginning of their interactions. Kani's charade scene was a lot of fun as everyone gets into it, eventually dragging their Captain into the shenangians. I know people might not be exactly as they are in canon, like Penguin and Shachi, but I honestly haven't seen much of them where I'm at, so I decided to develop them and the others more in a way I think makes sense. Hopefully you start to love them as much as I do.
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	5. An Old Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Law has a nightmare that he can't get out of his head and all the day's events just keep piling up his stress meter until he finally asks for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long chapter, but I really wanted it to come full circle and getting there just took a while. Lots of Law in his head, for better or worse.
> 
> TW:
> 
> Mild Depression  
> Implied Slef-Destructive Tendencies  
> Past Character Death  
> Past Child Abuse

LAW

The heat bore down on him as he walked, but Law continued on. All around him the flames licked at his skin and the smoke blocked his vision, his throat and he wanted to just give up but he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Every face he saw on the ground pushed him forward; the sister, his classmates, friends, neighbors, the baker, the tailor… so many faces all charred and disfigured but Law somehow knew who they were.

Lami, but her face so charred he only knew it was her from the pigtails she had. His parents holding onto each other even in death.

As he trudged on, he saw more recent faces and the guilt ripped through him. There was Ikkaku, Uni and Clione all piled together as if they died in a large hug. Tako and Jelli holding hands side by side, blonde hair around them like halos. Kani’s mask was cracked down the middle and Hitode and Swabbie were face down next to them. Shachi and Penguin with their hands outstretched towards the other, inches away.

Bepo… the beautiful white fur singed and blackened.

A straw hat rolled by, propelled by an explosion into his line of sight and Law didn’t want to look and see Luffy and his crew there, but he knew they must be. Luffy would never leave his hat around like that unless he was-

Ahead of him he saw two figures huddled in front of a Marine. One was an adult male, black coat over their shoulders and knitted hat sitting crookedly on their head. He held a little girl in his arms, blonde braids just visible under the man’s arms that wrapped around her protectively.

Then the Marine raised his gun to shoot, and Law tried to run to them but his feet were stuck to the ground, covered in ashes and dead bodies of people he knew once and people he knew now all mixing together. He reached out his hand and the Marine morphed into someone else, pink feathers dancing like fire about their shoulders and a wicked gleam in their upturned teeth that pierced through haze of smoke and debris.

Law screamed as the gun cracked, his voice drowned out in the crackle of combusting wood, melting bodies, and then the man and the girl fell motionless on the ground. Flames poured out of the wounds like blood and surrounded them until the bodies ignited into a blaze and Law heard an echo of laughter in his ears, ringing back and forth in his skull like hands across iron bars locking him in place.

His hand slapped over his mouth as he woke, a habit he developed after waking up his crew one too many times screaming. The echo of laughter faded as the gentle lapping of waves against the ship reached his ears and Law was able to think clearly. He went through his usual process of calming down from a nightmare, in for a count of three, hold, out for a count of three and repeated that until his heartrate leveled out. Opening his eyes, he grounded himself by counting the wood grains on the ceiling only just visible and became aware of a soft noises coming from the corner of the room. It was a good thing he kept his reflexes then or she would have definitely woken up from it.

He focused his attention on the noises she was making to see if she was awake and realized that she was sniffling. No, that wasn’t sniffling it was… crying? Was he supposed to do something about it? He had only just woken up from his own nightmare and felt too raw to try and cope with someone else’s and besides, would she even want help? Law personally hated it when people knew he had a nightmare; only Bepo, Shachi and Penguin knew about them. Cora might be the same way as him. Or she could want someone to hold her and comfort her back to sleep.

As he laid there and debated what to do, the sniffles tapered off and Cora must have fallen back asleep. There was nothing for it now, might as well try to get some more sleep.

When he woke again, it was to the delicious smell of coffee next to him. His hand was stretching toward the life giving aroma before his eyes even opened and he heard a small giggle next to him. More alert now, he opened his eyes and sat up to find Cora holding a tray of coffee and eggs.

“Good morning,” she said through some giggles and held the tray out.

Law made a noise that wasn’t any intelligible words as he put the tray on his lap and gratefully drank from the coffee, but that only spurred Cora’s giggle fit on even more. He gave her his most unimpressed look and then the giggles morphed into outright laughter and she nearly fell on the floor.

“Clione said that- coffee brought you to life- but I didn’t think- the way you reached for it-” Cora gasped out between laughter. Law rolled his eyes and went back to drinking. So what if he wasn’t alive until he had coffee. With how little sleep he usually got, it made sense that caffeine was the only thing that could animate him.

He let Cora get her laughs out, not used to seeing her act so freely. When they were on the base she was too busy following him around and on the ship she seemed too nervous to settle. He hoped the party had helped with that, but he understood it’d take some time before she truly felt comfortable around the crew. They were a weird bunch to get used to.

“Did you eat breakfast yet?” Law asked as he finished the last bite. Cora was sitting on the ground catching her breath and nodded in response.

“Yeah, Clione made veggies omelets. They were really good. Ooh, so was the food last night, did he make that, too?”

Law shook his head, “No, that was the Straw Hat cook, Blackleg-ya.”

“Blackleg?” Cora questioned.

“Sanji-ya.”

“Oh,” Cora said and her expression turned odd. Law couldn’t quite read it, it was somewhere between guilty and embarrassed and he decided to ignore it for now. They had more pressing things to do.

“Why don’t you bring this tray back down and then wait in the library, I’ll meet you there shortly.”

Cora nodded and left to do just that, so Law gathered some clothes and took a shower to get ready. Showers always left him tired, something about using seawater even if it was purified, so he finished quickly, dressed and went down the metal stairs to meet Cora. She was browsing the library books but turned to face him as he came down.

“We’re going to start your medical training,” Law announced and Cora nodded eagerly as she sat down on the small couch. Law opted to rest his back on the bookshelf behind him.

“I’ll have you start with ‘The Human Body,’ it’s a good comprehensive guide to the basic systems in the body and it has good diagrams to follow.” Law searched for the book on the shelf next to him and found it quickly. It was his first recommendation to every crew member that had joined and the book showed the wear and tear on the corners of its pages and faded letters on the cover.

Law handed it off to Cora and she started skimming through it. He had never taught someone this young before, but she was an avid reader unlike most of the crew. Listening to her talk about “Clean Justice” was an unanticipated but appreciated revelation. From her description, it was clear she had a critical mind and a desire to learn things, and Law could do a lot with that.

“I want you to read each chapter and write a summary in here,” Law explained as he pulled a notebook and pen from a desk drawer, “we’ll meet once a week to go over it and see how you’re progressing.”

Cora took the notebook gratefully and immediately opened it to the inside cover to write her name in one of the neatest scripts he’s seen.

“You had to write your name on everything on base,” Cora said and Law looked up to meet her eyes, “otherwise someone else was likely to steal it and say it was theirs. It was a big game, but we all took it seriously for some reason.”

Law gave a short nod because he understood how a group of people (his crew) would start something as a joke and then it’d become edict (everything they did.)

“Also, you’re going to work under Swabbie-ya’s direction to help keep the ship clean. Everyone here does their part and you’re no exception.”

“Okay,” Cora accepted cheerfully. Law blinked because he was expecting more push back from her, but as he thought about it he didn’t know why he did. She was used to taking care of a large group of children, why would transitioning to cleaning a ship be much different? Different chores, same responsibility.

“He’s usually one of the early ones to get up, so it might be worth it to wait for him in the kitchen area,” Law suggested and Cora smiled at him, stood up and saluted him with a loud, “Okay Captain Dr. Law!” Law sighed heavily and Cora scampered off with the book and notebook in hand.

She was already becoming one of the crew. Speaking of, they needed to get new clothes for her or at least patch up the ones she had. He’d have to talk with Clione.

With nothing pressing to do, he didn’t currently have any patients other than Jelli, Law decided it might be a good idea to document the mineral dust buildup the children had. According to Amara, Marine bitch though she was, her doctors couldn’t identify what was wrong with the children until they were dead and performed an autopsy. Law would like it so that the symptoms could be identified before death.

He took out another blank notebook and titled it “Mineral Dust Build-Up in Adolescents from Mining Seastone.” Law had actually written many short essays on numerous diseases, it was his hobby, but never published any of them. To publish an essay you had to be part of the Government or sell your research to them (good joke) or have enough resources and connections to print and distribute yourself, which Law did not have. So he hoarded his research in cabinets for his personal use and lent them out to people as he deemed fit (mostly just Chopper outside of his crew.)

Opening the first page, Law detailed what mineral dust build up was and an overview of how one gets it. He drew in a few pictures from memory of what the lungs looked like with the dust and without them, close-ups of the scars left behind. He then went on to describe the symptoms of the children and causes, but faltered when he started detailing the specific environment the children lived in. He tried to write things like “forced labor” and “slavery” and “child abuse,” but his pen refused to write them. Dancing around it didn’t work either because then he was avoiding how one gets the disease and that was necessary in an essay like this. He squeezed the pen until his knuckles turned white and his hand shook with the effort of trying to get it to write anything useful on the paper, only growing more frustrated with himself when he couldn’t.

“Fuck!” he seethed and threw the pen down, cradling his head in his hands. It was like writing about Flevance all over again. The paralysis at trying to document something without emotion that was too close to his heart to distance it. How could he write about a massacre and government cover up in objective terms? Was that even possible? Five times he tried writing that essay over the course of his life and five times he threw it in the trash in near tears from the pain of remembering. Bepo was the one who would comfort him then, his rock when his mind was too far adrift in a storm, and Law was tempted to track him down now.

He took a few deep breaths to calm down, and was halfway out of his seat when he heard a cut off scream and a crash below him. Law took off out of the library, through the lounge area and down the stairs.

Shachi and Penguin were working out together and paused when they saw their captain running down the stairs.

“Captain?” Penguin asked from his position helping Shachi set the bench press bar down. Shachi also gave him an inquisitive look.

Law ignored them and ran to the landing to go downstairs, but stopped at what he saw. At the bottom of the stairs was a pile of linen sheets, a foot and an arm sticking out of them. As he watched, Cora’s head popped out of it and tipped back to stare at him.

“Cora!” voices chorused out and as Law walked down the steps Clione, Ikkaku and Kani came into view.

“I’m fine!” Cora called out and Law was getting tired of hearing that. Unless you’re made of rubber or using haki, you don’t just fall down metal stairs and go uninjured.

“Are you injured?” Law asked as he knelt in front of the mess of laundry and small child.

Cora checked over herself as she disentangled from the sheets, “Uh, bruised my shoulder, hit my head, and twisted my ankle or something. So, pretty good all considered.” She honestly seemed pleased with the results. All those injuries somehow amounted to a mere inconvenience to Cora and not the serious issue it should be.

“If you hit your head, we should check it’s not a concussion,” Law said and Cora stared at him uncomprehending. “A concussion is a brain injury that can cause memory loss, vomiting, and confusion among other things. Any time you hit your head hard enough to hurt, there’s a chance for a concussion or mild concussion.”

“Can I at least bring these downstairs first?” Law didn’t bother to dignify that with a response and instead picked her up out of the pile of linens, ignoring a squawk of protest, to bring her to the patients’ room. Ikkaku’s laughter rang out behind him but whether it was at Cora or himself, he wasn’t sure.

“Ikkaku-ya, please bring the sheets downstairs for Swabbie-ya.”

“Aye, Captain!” Ikkaku answered and Law didn’t have to look to know she was saluting him.

Inside the patients’ room, Law put Cora down on one of the beds and then looked through some cabinets before he found the concussion checklist he had made. Concussions were common among his crew and pirates in general, so he made the checklist to quickly go through the symptoms.

“I’m going to ask you some questions and I want you to score them 1 through 5, with 1 being “None” and 5 being “Extreme,” okay Cora-ya?” Cora nodded and Law told her to avoid nodding in response to his questions because if she did have a concussion, it’d only make it worse. 

Law went through the list asking her questions and recording responses. At one point he took out a flashlight to check her eye response (normal) and then snapped his fingers next to her ear to check hearing (also normal). Other than a headache and dizziness, she seemed fine.

“Ok, that’s good,” Law said as he put his equipment away. “You probably just have a mild concussion, so try to take it easy for the rest of the day. Now let’s see your ankle.”

There wasn’t much he could do for the bruised shoulder other than ice, but depending on how bad the ankle was it might need a brace around it.

“Really, it’s fine. This isn’t even close to the most I’ve gotten hurt falling down stairs,” Cora assured Law as she brought her ankle across her lap to take the boot and sock off. It wasn’t the least bit reassuring to know this was mild in comparison to other falls.

“Nevertheless, I still want to check it out.”

Law grabbed her foot and calf and gently lifted it from the bed to inspect it. It looked red and a little swollen, but not broken and when he prodded at it, Cora didn’t recoil from the pain. With her blasé attitude towards her injury, though, Law wondered if she had developed a high pain tolerance preventing him from telling how much it actually hurt.

“I’m going to put some ice on it and then I want you resting here with the ice until half of it is melted. Is the book I lent you and the notebook in the kitchen?”

“Yeah, should be on the farther table in there.”

“Ok, I’ll bring you that to read while you rest. You are not to get up from there until the ice has melted, okay?”

“Aye Captain!” Cora saluted him from the bed with another large grin. Maybe he should mandate that the crew stop saluting him if they were just going to mock him with it. But no, they had too much fun and Law didn’t want to take that away from them. He knew it was done with as much respect as it was in jest. Still weirded him out.

Law brought Cora her stuff and let her get to work as he went back outside to assure the crew it was fine and inform Swabbie his new underling would be incapacitated for a little bit. He grumbled under his breath about clumsy kids and then stalked off to finish the laundry. Law decided he needed a break and went onto the deck to just think.

His thoughts flitted between Cora, the kids and their disease, Flevance and the amber lead, just idle speculations floating like the waves in front of him. The day was warm, but a cool breeze blew across the ship as it sailed towards their destination. Law could only hope it had what he was looking for, but the last few leads they had went cold so he wasn’t putting much stock into it. Still, he never could quite pass up the chance to check it out.

Would this island finally have the silence silence devil fruit he had been searching for?

Law chased a few leads in the past that hadn’t panned out, but the auction they were heading to promised a unique devil fruit capable of manipulating sound. While that didn’t necessarily mean the silence silence devil fruit, it was as good a lead as he had seen in a while and so he set a course for it. When Law told Luffy where he was going, he decided it sounded fun and that it had been a while since they last met up. Law did not tell the other that he missed him, but he was sure Luffy figured it out on his own.

Thoughts of the silence silence fruit brought to mind its previous owner and Law felt his heart ache at the memories. After all this time, he never stopped missing Cora-san. He wondered what he would be like now, what he’d think of the choices he’s made. Sengoku said Cora-san would have wanted Law to live out his life as he wanted, that Cora-san didn’t save him because of the “D.” that he bears. What did that mean, though? Was putting Doflamingo behind bars not what he would have wanted? Has Law been living it wrong this whole time?

And then there was Corwynna, or Cora. Who smiled the same, and had the same clumsiness that he did. The same stubborn streak once they set their mind to help someone else. That damn heart shaped birthmark on her cheek. Even their nicknames were the same! It was like the universe was taunting him with all the similarities and coincidences piling up. Or, was the universe telling him something else?

His musing was interrupted by a loud yell of “Torao!” and a rubber body flying at him. Law braced himself for the impact and caught the young captain as he barreled into him with just a step back.

“Nice catch,” Luffy said with his limbs wrapped around Law.

“Strawhat-ya, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Got bored, saw you here with your thinking face on. Whatcha thinking about?”

“Cora-ya,” Law admitted, too emotionally charged to try and deflect right now. Luffy must have sensed the serious mood as he detached himself from the doctor to sit on the railing instead. Law leaned his elbows on the railing and clasped his hands together tightly, focusing on that sensation to ground himself back to the present.

“What about her?”

Law didn’t answer right away, but after a minute he said, “I have a strange question to ask you, Strawhat-ya.”

“You always ask strange questions, Torao. That isn’t anything new.”

Law thinned his lips in an imitation of a smile and pressed on, “Do you believe in reincarnation?”

Luffy cocked his head to the side as his cheerful expression faded, “Re-a what now? Is it from some kind of story?”

“No, it’s the belief that when someone dies, their soul is reborn in another body. They retain all the personality and core beliefs they had, but wear a new face and grow up as someone else. Maybe they have memories of their past life, maybe not.”

Silence stretched between them as the normally spacey man put some deep thought into the question. Looking over, Law could see his eyebrows pinch together and his eyes were squeezed shut in concentration. Just when Law thought his brain would explode from the effort, Luffy let out a long breath and shrugged.

“Nope, I always thought you died and that was it. Having a do over seems like cheating, though.”

“Hm, maybe. I didn’t believe in it either, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Yeah? What changed?”

Law thought for a moment how best to explain it, and decided the beginning was as good as any.

“You remember me talking about Cora-san, yeah?”

Luffy nodded, “Your almost father figure that rescued you from Mingo as a kid and dragged you to a bunch of hospitals to help cure you from… eh… something. Then stole your devil fruit for you.”

“It was amber lead poisoning and yes,” Law confirmed. They both left out that Doflamingo shot and killed Cora-san, his own freaking brother, right in front of Law’s eyes and for that he was grateful.

“What about him?”

“Cora-ya reminds me of him a lot,” Law said and then let the thought hang, wondering if Luffy would be able to put the pieces together. It was a fifty-fifty shot whether he did or didn’t. Evidently, all that thinking earlier charged Luffy’s brain up and his eyes widened in realization.

“You think little Cora is Cora-san but rei… reborn again?” Luffy asked and Law was thankful that Luffy had put the pieces together. It seemed slightly less ridiculous when someone else said it than having to say it himself. No, it still sounded ridiculous but at least he didn’t have to say it.

“I know it sounds insane, Strawhat-ya. It’s just…” and Law trailed off. Luffy let him gather his thoughts, though, and eventually Law rejoined the conversation, “They feel like the same person. It’s not logical by any means, but their smile, their concern for others, that stubbornness… It’s all the things I would say made Cora-san who he was. And she has them, too, and I just…”

“I wonder if Ace was reincarnated then,” Luffy said abruptly. Law gasped beside him because he didn’t even think about what reincarnation might mean to Luffy. That Ace could be reincarnated, too.

“Luffy-ya, I didn’t-”

“I’d like that,” Luffy cut him off, “to see Ace again, I mean. Even if he was a kid again. Or a girl. He’d probably be a brat, but he’d still be Ace, right? All the things that made him Ace would be there so he’d be easy to recognize. No one had a temper quite like he did; his eyebrows would scrunch all funny. He’d be fiercely loyal to his friends, his family… But I could see him again. So, yeah, I think I like that idea.”

Law felt his throat close up at hearing Luffy talk about Ace like that. Luffy never talked about his brother. Ever since he woke up on the Polar Tang and broke out into the forest to cry his eyes out, Law has heard him mention Ace only a few times, and it was never like this. Never with so much… hope. Law didn’t know if he was agreeing with him that Cora could be Cora-san, or that wanting to see a loved one again was an acceptable want to have, but he was grateful for the thought either way.

Law couldn’t bring himself to say anything in response, so the two stood in each other’s presence, just letting the knowledge that they had both loved and lost sit between them. For all the boundless energy Luffy had, Law knew he took the time to reflect on things too. His reflections were probably different than anyone else’s, but that didn’t mean he didn’t do it.

Eventually, lunch came around and his crew met up in the kitchen area to eat. Whenever possible, his crew gathered everyone to eat together. (Mostly so they knew Law ate something. He had a bad habit of skipping meals so Clione and Bepo spearheaded the campaign to make sure he ate and everyone jumped on board because it was fun.) Law kept an eye on Cora, but she didn’t seem to be expressing any further concussion symptoms like forgetting where she was in a conversation and generally seemed to enjoy herself talking to everyone, so he deemed her safe. Until she was helping wash dishes later and accidentally cut her hand on the knives trying to wash them. Clione was quick to clean and bandage it, but Law could already see that her clumsiness was limitless and this would be a thing. Maybe he’d put first aid kits in every room with, “FOR CORA EMERGENCIES” on them.

Law tracked down Zoro for a sparring session after lunch, something he knew the other man was always willing to engage in, to try and release some stress from the day. He eventually roped Shachi and Clione into it, too, and let Zoro get annoyed with their mediocrity until he decided to just teach them. Law was self-taught and found trying to teach others swordsmanship didn’t come naturally to him, but Zoro lived and breathed it.

Shachi was better than Clione, but both were clumsy with it. Shachi always put too much power into it and forgot the technique while Clione overthought his moves and became slow because of it. They both fought Zoro together, and occasionally Law would swap out with them to show them what a real sword battle looked like. Things only got weirder when Brook joined in, the skeleton having a completely different kind of sword style, and served to confuse Shachi and Clione even more. Law called it quit at that point and left.

Law meandered his ship, no particular destination in mind. He passed by Ikkaku and Uni modifying Uni’s staff with some extendable piece, Kani tinkering with one of the torpedoes, Cora and Swabbie cleaning up the bedrooms, Tako and Penguin doing some stretching thing together that looked painful, before he finally settled with Jelli in the lounge area to read while she studied. Jelli never had a formal education, but she picked things up fast and Law answered her questions as best he could between his own reading.

Everything seemed calm and settled, until he heard a crash from below and Swabbie’s distressed shouting. Figuring Cora had somehow gotten injured, again, Law made his way downstairs, placating Tako and Penguin as he passed them. When he finally made it to the kitchen, Cora was sitting on the floor and Swabbie was picking up broken glass from a picture that fell off the wall. A cursory check told him that Cora wasn’t injured, but he could tell she was uneasy. She wasn’t even trying to hide it, and that in itself was alarming.

“What happened?” Law asked and Swabbie stood from his crouched position to face his captain. Law was proud to note the thick gloves he wore and the box he was using to pick up the glass shards. Safety was important on a closed vessel underneath the ocean most of the time

“Clumsy Cora over here tripped while mopping the floor and knocked down the picture.”

Cora didn’t say anything in response and just stared at the floor. Law had expected a rebuttal from her; in the few days he’d known her she was always quick with a comeback. Now, though, she was silent and still. Something was wrong here.

“Are either of you injured?”

“No,” Swabbie answered and Cora shook her head. Law went over to sit in front of her and waited until she glanced up at him, expression neutral.

“Are you okay?”

Cora stared at him for a moment before she mustered up a smile and replied, “Yep, the glass didn’t get me at all.”

After searching her expression for any lies, Law found none and was forced to admit that he couldn’t tell what was wrong. The unease he felt before was gone and Cora was back to being her usual inscrutable self. Law sighed heavily and then commended Swabbie for using the right cleaning equipment. He rolled his eyes in response with an expression that said that was obvious and then resumed cleaning.

“Why don’t you join Jelli and me in the lounge for some reading?” Law proposed and Core agreed.

They read for a little while before dinner rolled around and both crews gathered back in the Polar Tang kitchens. While they sailed together, it became tradition for Sanji and Clione to work together to make dinner and learn from each other (re: Sanji taught Clione because Clione could only cook basic meals). The crews mixed up where they sat each day, intermingling as much as they could, so Law didn’t notice anything off at first. But the more he paid attention, the more he saw that something was wrong.

Cora seemed to be on edge. She sat between Swabbie and Kani this time and flinched every so often. It was subtle, but noticeable since Law was still in the habit of checking on each of his crew at meals to make sure they were okay. After watching for a little bit longer and trying to be subtle about it, Law realized she was reacting to Swabbie gesticulating. She shied away a little whenever one of his arms came too close to her. What was more baffling was that she didn’t flinch when Kani, who used sign language to talk and therefore moved their hands a lot more, did the same thing on her other side. It was just Swabbie.

Law kept his observations quiet throughout dinner and bided his time until dinner ended and pulled Cora aside into the patient’s room under pretense of looking at her ankle. Well, it was a pretense until he decided he did want to see her ankle and make sure it was fine. Cora laid down on the bed and Law’s quick examination showed that there were no lasting impacts so he moved on to the real reason he wanted to talk to her.

“You seemed… tense at dinner, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Just not used to the crew yet,” Cora responded easily. Law figured there was at least enough truth in there that he wouldn’t be able to call her on it, despite lunch being a stark contradiction, so he focused his questioning more.

“How is everything going with Swabbie-ya?” Law asked and Cora didn’t respond instantly this time. Too many thoughts ran through Law’s head at the hesitation and he didn’t like any of them.

“As good as can be with my clumsiness! We never had to do chores like this at the base, I didn’t realize how bad I would be at it.”

That statement threw Law off enough that he asked with thinking, “You didn’t have to do chores?”

“Nope,” Cora popped the ‘p’ and continued, “our only job was mining seastone. The rest of the time was in education, playtime or sleeping.”

It surprised Law that the children were given any kind of education, he thought they were treated as glorified slaves. Maybe it was to help keep up the pretense of an orphanage? Or to fulfill some other requirement for looking after children? Either way, Cora had successfully derailed the conversation and he needed to get back on track.

“Swabbie-ya is looking out for you, though?”

“Yeah! Everything’s good.”

Cora looked like she was telling the truth, so Law had no idea what to believe. He knows what he saw and he knows Cora is an excellent liar, but without her saying anything he can’t act on it. If she won’t admit something’s wrong, he can’t help her.

Law sighed as he leaned forward to look her straight in the eyes, “Cora-ya. I don’t have many rules on my ship; I generally let people do as they want. One of my rules is you be honest with me. If you’re not fine, you don’t have to pretend you are. We’re a crew for a reason, we look out for each other.”

“That’s not fair!” Cora blurted out, leaning forward to smack her hands on the bed, “You lie to yourself all the time!”

Law blinked at her because what was she-

“You look like you want to smile, and then force yourself to stop. When we were playing charades, you wanted to join in and smile, but didn’t. Or when someone salutes you, your lips quirk but then you force them straight. Or when Luffy hugs you or-”

“I get it, Cora-ya, but that’s hardly the same thing as you pretending you’re fine.” How was he the one being interrogated now? What happened to his control over this conversation?

“It’s not! You pretend you’re unhappy when you want to smile and I pretend everything’s fine even when it’s not.”

“So you admit you’re not okay then,” Law summarized and Cora’s eyes bulged out. She clearly hadn’t meant to reveal that, but now that Law pointed it out she pulled away from him and folded her arms across her chest petulantly. That was as far as he’d probably get with her.

“Okay Cora-ya, let’s make a deal. I’ll try to allow myself to smile more, and you try to tell me when you’re truly not okay. We’ll both work on it, deal?”

And because Law couldn’t think of a better way to get her to agree, he held out his pinky like she had when they made their first deal. It was incredibly humiliating for him, but he figured that the hit to his pride would be worth her agreement.

Cora looked at his pinky, then up at him and he felt his cheeks warm as he waited for her to do something, but after a quick grin she reached over and locked pinkies with him. Then she burst into giggles and Law wondered if she just played him somehow, but she didn’t have a victorious smirk on, just a normal smile. She’s just laughing because Law did something ridiculous and, yeah, it’s kind of funny.

Law made a hasty retreat after that, unwilling to see what other crazy things he’d be willing to do to try and make her feel more at ease and tracked down Swabbie instead. If Cora won’t tell him what happened, he had no choice but to talk to someone that he can threaten to dismember if they don’t listen.

Swabbie was at the kitchen table, taking apart his gun and cleaning it with Ikkaku and Jean Bart next to him doing the same with theirs. Ikkaku kept up a steady stream of commentary as she worked and the others stayed mostly quiet, occasionally adding to the conversation but content to listen.

“Swabbie-ya,” Law said and then gestured with his head to follow him. Swabbie grumbled but left his dismantled gun on the table and followed his captain. Law led him all the way up to his room/office and then sat on the edge of his desk, Kikoku resting next to him. He always kept it in the same spot against his desk so it’d be easy to ROOM and grab if they were attacked.

“What did you need… Captain?” Swabbie asked and it was immediately obvious he was nervous. In the short time Swabbie and Law had been together, Law didn’t think he ever pulled him aside like this save from his introduction. He had talked with the other crew members one on one often, but not Swabbie.

“I am going to ask this once. I just want you to tell the truth, whatever it is. Think before you speak and then say it. If you try and lie to me about it, I’m going to take your limbs and use them as bait to catch sea kings. Nod if you understand.”

Swabbie paled and took a large gulp, hands twitching at his sides, and then nodded.

“Good. What happened between you and Cora?”

Whatever Swabbie had been expecting, that obviously was not it. His fear morphed into confusion, his eyes looking up as he thought about what Law could be asking or why he might be asking it. Clearly, he was thinking about something completely different.

“Maguro-ya, just answer the question.”

Using his actual name got his attention and Swabbie huffed and said, “I don’t know what to tell you, nothing happened, she’s just clumsy.” Law sighed and reached for Kikoku so Swabbie started talking more, “Honest! I don’t know what you mean by what happened between us. She ambushed me after breakfast saying that she was going to be my new helper, so I told her to collect the bed sheets. She fell down the stairs, as you know, and you gave her some time to rest her ankle. I didn’t see her until lunch and then told her to help Clione clean dishes while I cleaned up the tables. She cut herself doing that.

“So then I tried to give her chores without pointy things involved and had her cleaning bathrooms. She spilled water a bunch but cleaned it up herself. We was mopping the floor in the kitchen area when she tripped on the bucket and somehow ran into the wall. That knocked the picture down, raining glass everywhere, and I moved her away from it. I went to get the gloves and box to pick up the glass and find her trying to pick up the pieces with her hands! So I shooed her off and picked the rest up myself.

“After that, we continued mopping until dinner.”

Nothing Swabbie said seemed surprising or untrue, Law had seen the aftermath of most of the incidents, but there was something he was missing here. Cora’s adverse reactions to Swabbie doesn’t line up with “shooing” or “moving away.” Looking at his newest member, Law thought on what he knew of the guy. He was loud and abrasive, but cowardly. Didn’t believe in getting into fights he couldn’t win. Quick to a temper, too.

“Explain in more detail the mopping incident.”

Swabbie quirked an eyebrow as if to say, explain what, but Law stared him down and Swabbie relented, “She was mopping near the wall while I was mopping in the cooking area with all the pointy knives, and when I heard clanging I looked back to see her hit shoulder first against the wall. The picture frame fell on top of her, glass shattering everywhere. She made a move to get up, but she was going to put her hands on the glass, so I picked her up and moved her aside,” Swabbie said as he acted it out, hands moving wildly. His hand motions didn’t match up with his words, though.

“You grabbed her by the shirt and tossed her?” Law asked, trying to interpret what Swabbie mimed.

He looked baffled at that clarification but nodded, “Yeah, guess I did.”

“And then?”

“Well, then I went to get the stuff and came back to see her with her bare hands picking up the glass shards. So I smacked her on the head telling her to stop and go sit somewhere else while I cleaned it.”

It came to Law with startling clarity the moment when Vice Admiral Amara hit Cora in the name of helping her or getting her to listen. He knew from small snippets from her that the other Marines on base weren’t afraid to follow in those steps and get a little physical with the children when they thought the kids were being a nuisance. Cora was lumping Swabbie in with the Marines she’d learn to fear and fight her whole life.

That was unacceptable.

“Maguro,” Law started, his voice pitched low and immediately garnering his subordinate’s attention, “have you heard Cora talk about the Marines on her base?” When Swabbie shook his head with a quiet no, Law continued, “They hit the children a lot. Cora usually ended up taking the worst of it for her siblings. They also yelled at her and basically treated them like slaves at times. Your actions, however you intended them, reminded her of that and now she’s afraid of you.”

“What- but I didn’t-” Law held up a hand to cut him off.

“I don’t care that you didn’t mean to, I’m explaining it as it is. You are a member of the Heart Pirates now. I know you only joined to leave your island and we were just a convenient way off, but as long as you are here, you are one of us. I will not tolerate my crew living in fear of each other. We are a team and will act as such. If we cannot depend on each other in a moment of crisis, we’ll fail and people will die, either in battle or the operating table.

“As soon as possible, you will go talk to Cora and work this out. I believe you when you say you just weren’t thinking, so now I am asking you to think. Figure out what you can do to make her comfortable around you and do it. If nothing you come up with works, talk to me and we’ll figure something out. Is that clear?”

At the end of his speech, Law was pleased to note the straight spine Swabbie had and the determined look in his eyes. He was normally so hunched over all the time, staring at the ground or something else, but now he looked his captain right in the eyes with something like… wonder?

“Yes, captain!” Swabbie answered with a crisp salute and then he left. When he was out of sight, Law laid back across his desk. It wasn’t comfortable by any means, but he just felt drained. This day had too many emotional conversations for him. His heartrate picked up as fragments of conversation came back to him, talking with Luffy about Cora-san and reopening that wound. Cora telling him that she was fine when she clearly wasn’t and his childish deal. Confronting Maguro about his behavior and having to be all captain-y.

It was too much right now when he still didn’t feel quite stable from this morning’s nightmare. The fire around him and the conversations all echoing in his head, telling him to be better, be stronger. Don’t let these people down, don’t fuck it up. He threw an arm over his eyes to try and block it out, but that didn’t help. He was too far gone in his head right now and there was only one solution he knew that worked that wasn’t self-destructive.

He needed Bepo.

Law found the bear playing cards in the lounge with Clione, Uni and Kani. He waited in the doorway until the round finished before he called out, “Bepo.”

“Yes, Captain?” Bepo asked, the last syllable chopped off as Bepo turned to look at Law. After knowing each other for over a decade, Bepo read his expression instantly and knew what his captain needed. Law didn’t say anything else and just left to go upstairs, Bepo’s footsteps right behind him.

Once in his room, Bepo found the open wall space kept clear for this purpose and sat against it, Law navigating his way to Bepo’s side. A large paw came around him and Law sunk into the bear, letting the warmth calm him down. He didn’t move to wrap his arms around his friend, just closed his eyes and breathed deeply, feeling safe and content. Law tried not to bother Bepo with this too often, but sometimes everything got to be too much and the other alternatives were things he swore he wouldn’t do again.

He could feel the soft fur from Bepo’s paw against him and it wasn’t singed. The air was pleasant and not full of fire or smoke. Bepo’s chest rose and fell slowly under his cheek so Law knew he was alive. He counted the heartbeats to himself until Bepo spoke up.

“Are you okay, Law?” Bepo whispered, his usual question in this scenario. Law didn’t know why he always asked, his answer was always the same. He would say “I’m fine” and they would both pretend that he was telling the truth and Law would continue to sit there until he calmed down enough to shove it all back in the box and forget about it until this happened again.

Law opened his mouth to say just that, but abruptly halted when he recalled Cora doing the exact same thing to him when he asked. That big smile as she lied and they both knew she was lying but neither acknowledged it. How Law just wanted her to be honest with him so he could help her. Is that how Bepo felt this whole time? Always asking just in case Law would finally admit that he needed help? Somehow, Law had never considered it.

He felt like the world’s biggest hypocrite, trying to get Cora to say she wasn’t fine when Law had been lying to himself for over a decade. If he wanted her to own up to it, shouldn’t he practice the same thing? But now that he thought about doing it, he wondered if he really could. Wouldn’t it be weird to admit now that he wasn’t okay? For something that happened years in the past?

He must have been silent for too long because Bepo shifted underneath him and asked tentatively, “Law?”

Well, shit, now or never right? Time to own up and practice his own advice, however nauseas it made him feel. Couldn’t be worse than continuing to pretend everything was fine.

“No, Bepo, it’s not okay. I’m… not okay,” Law admitted. And just the words said out loud hurt him. To actually acknowledge it brought tears to his eyes and his chest clenched painfully. Instead of a tight ball in his chest, the pain spread through all his limbs, his throat, his eyes, free now to ravage through him with abandon. He dug his head further into Bepo and brought one of his arms up to wrap around Bepo’s. Fuck, why was this so hard? Wasn’t it supposed to be easier after you said it? But no, now it was out there in the world. He had said it out loud to someone even. There was no putting it back in the box after this, no locking it away. Now he just had to deal with it. And fuck it hurt.

“Can I… Is there anything you want me to do to help?” Bepo prodded after a few moments of Law not saying anything else. Law shook his head knowing Bepo would feel it, but then decided he would be a little more honest with himself.

“This, Bepo. I just need you to help ground me like this when it… all gets too much.”

Bepo gasped above him, Law had never actually admitted to needing Bepo like this before, it was another unspoken thing they had. Let him save face, he supposed, but he was done saving face. Done pretending this didn’t hurt. It hurt a lot, burned him up from the inside and tore into his head like a hurricane, and right now he just wanted a hug.

Law moved his arms to hug Bepo, earning another small noise of surprise, before Bepo quickly returned the hug with both arms. As Law let a few tears fall, Bepo removed his hat carefully and patted one paw over his head soothingly, murmuring nonsense Law didn’t quite make out. But it was calming and even though everything hurt so much right then, he fell asleep peacefully in his best friend’s arms and didn’t have any nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't a hard chapter to write in that nothing came to me for it, but it was hard to write because of how emotional it got. I firmly believe Law is still dealing with his depression years later because he never actually acknowledged it and just kept shoving it away. So yeah, this is the start of Law acknowledging he has issues and working through them. As it goes, though, nothing magically gets better, but admitting there's an issue at all is the first step. And Bepo gives the best hugs.
> 
> Let me know what you thought of it!


	6. A New Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A collection of moments some of the other crew members spend with Cora aboard the Polar Tang. Basically everyone is slowly adopting small child as their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to do something a little different his chapter and switch up the perspectives a bit, give you some insight on a few of the new characters. As much as I love Law and just drowning in angst with him, sometimes we need to take a step back and do something happier :)
> 
> TW:  
> Mentions of Past Child Abuse

CORA

After being on a pirate ship for a week, Cora could safely say that it was not what had expected. From the stories they had told, she had expected more battles and less… hanging around. It wasn’t all that different from her time with the Marines if mining was substituted for cleaning (and Cora would take that trade any day) except she was surrounded by adults now and not children. Even then, some of the adults acted like children. 

The biggest example was Captain Luffy who, now that Cora had gotten to know him, was surprised he was a Captain at all. He was just a giant goofball. Yes, he was strong and had an amazing devil fruit ability, but his attitude was more willful child than valiant leader. Dr. Law fit that one much better, but Cora kept this observation to herself. No need to stir up trouble unnecessarily.

Or Cora going to bed and finding Dr. Law and Bepo snuggled together on the floor fast asleep. It was one of the cutest things she had ever seen and told Cora more than words ever could how close the two of them were, how much they trusted each other. She found herself a little jealous and couldn’t tell if it was because Dr. Law got to snuggle with Bepo, the warmest and fuzziest hugger, or something else. 

The rest of the Heart Pirates were strange in their own way and Cora wondered how she’d ever fit in among them. Only time would tell she supposed.

MAGURO

Maguro, also known as Swabbie, had fucked up. He hadn’t realized it at the time, too angry about what was going on to think it through, but in hindsight he freely admitted he fucked up. He was actually embarrassed it had taken Captain Law to point it out to him, but not surprised. Self-awareness was never his thing. He was who he was and people generally would tell him if they had an issue with that. 

Unless you were Cora because then your reaction was to suck it up and deal with it. Seriously, who does that? If you didn’t like how someone does something, you tell them and work it out. 

Maguro wasn’t even mad at the Captain for the reaming he got over it. It was completely deserved. Captain Law was a good Captain, unexpectedly. With how he was gone for over a year on some secret mission he didn’t explain and having never met the guy, Maguro honestly thought he was a shit Captain. The crew assured him multiple times that Captain Law was amazing and had left for their own protection, not wanting to drag them into a war he couldn’t protect them in, but Maguro believed that as much as he believed in the existence of fairies. Which is to say, not at all. Then the guy gets mad at him over hurting a kid’s feelings and well, anyone who does that can’t be all bad, Surgeon of Death or not.

But he was getting off topic here and he had a mission to complete.

Finding Cora wasn’t hard. Either she was with him working, shadowing the Captain as he worked, or in the library reading. Since she wasn’t on duty right now and Captain was playing cards, the library it was.

When Maguro opened the library door, Cora was tucked into the corner of the couch with her knees drawn up and “The Human Body” resting on them. She looked like a turtle just leaving its shell, her shoulders drawn in and her head peeking out in clothes that swamped her tiny frame. 

He took a few steps into the room and waited for her to realize he was there. For all her clumsiness, she had great awareness of people around her. It was just a moment later that she turned to face him and he noticed that she huddled even more into her shell as she put the book on the armrest and folded her hands in her lap.

She was definitely afraid of him and he had royally fucked things up.

“I’m sorry,” Maguro stated, loud and clear, accompanied by a formal bow. He resolutely did not look up from the ground, waiting for her to respond first.

“What… What are you apologizing for?” Cora stuttered out.

“I realized after yesterday that I might have… er… overreacted and treated you badly because of it,” Maguro said as he stood up straight from the bow and looked at her. As Cora only stared at him in open mouthed shock, he moved to sit on the couch and at Cora’s slight flinch, chose the spot farthest away from her.

“I… I don’t…” Cora started, but trailed off, her eyes wide and staring at him in disbelief. Her mouth formed other words he couldn’t pick up as she decided on how to finish it before saying, “understand.”

Maguro sighed heavily, a hand scratching the back of his neck in the nervous tick he knew he had but could never get rid of. His dad could always tell when he did something he felt guilty about because of it, and generally used it as a detector to make sure he and his brother were okay.

And that was when Maguro had his epiphany on what he had done. He was sure his cheeks started flushing when he realized it because it was incredibly silly, but nonetheless true. 

He had treated Cora like he did his younger brother. Kai was a little shit and a troublemaker. He was naturally athletic and smart and never failed to use those skills to his advantage. Most of the time, this worked out, but when it didn’t, Maguro was the one who had to bail him out of it somehow. 

This led to a lot of fights of Maguro trying to convince Kai what he was doing was stupid and Kai insisting he was fine and could handle it. There were times when Maguro forcibly dragged him away from situations, uncaring of either of their pride, because he knew Kai would get himself killed if he went through with it. Sometimes Kai resisted a little more and their verbal fights devolved into fist fights.

This went on for years until Maguro decided fuck it, if Kai wanted to continue risking his life doing stupid shit, let him. He heard about Kai going hiking with some friends, in one of the dangerous parts of the mountain people avoided because the ground was loose, and did nothing to stop him. A few days later, they got word that there was a rock slide in those parts and everyone had died.

So yeah, seeing another little upstart thinking they can do everything and putting themselves needlessly at risk made him upset. And he reacted badly.

“I treated you like I would have my little brother,” Maguro admitted to Cora after he got his thoughts in order, “He was a little shit and always getting into trouble. We’d fight with each other all the time because I would try to look out for him and he’d insist everything was okay. I’d smack him on the head for doing something dangerous and he’d kick me back. Sometimes I’d bodily drag him from something if he’d get too stubborn about it.”

Maguro decided to leave out the part where he died. He hadn’t thought about that in years and it was too hard to talk about right now.

“He was always coming home with cuts and scrapes from not taking care of himself properly, and seeing you be so clumsy yesterday reminded me of him like that. So, I treated you like I did him. You were covered in glass and trying to move in it without gear so I just reacted like I did with him and moved you to safety. And then!” Maguro turned to her, unable to stop himself from being angry just thinking about it, “Then you just try to pick up the pieces bare handed! What were you thinking!?”

Cora glared at him a little bit, cheeks puffed out, and Maguro let his anger drop and get to the heart of what he needed to say here. Because he didn’t want to yell at her.

“I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have done that. There were probably better methods to stopping you being dumb than physical force. Next time, I’ll… clap or something. In the future, feel free to yell at me if I’m an idiot. It’s how I learn best.”

Cora stared at him some more, clearly trying to process his words. Her hand absently reached up to play with one of her braided pigtails, just brushing the ends of it with her thumb. Maguro recognized it as her thinking pose and settled back into the couch to wait. He didn’t know what she had to think on, either she accepted his apology or not, but that wasn’t his business to decide.

Cora was an odd one. Most of the Heart Pirates were, to be fair, but she was a whole bunch of contradictions. He’d heard her talk intellectually about subjects he knew nothing about and she enjoyed reading those damned awful medical books they tried to get him into, but then you’d ask her a basic question about the world, like the average price of eggs, and she had no idea. One minute she’d swindle the whole table at cards and the next she’d hide herself in a corner of the room. She swung from high confidence to none at the drop of a hat and it was frustrating.

Anyone could tell she was a brilliant kid and a good one, too, with how she took care of all the others kids on her base, surely she knew that? 

“You didn’t even check to see if I was okay,” Cora said after a while. And, yeah, that’s fair. He hadn’t done that. He had meant to, but then Captain Law had swept her away and dinner prep got going and he forgot. Cora looked upset about it, though, and Maguro remembered Captain saying that the Marines would beat the kids and how Cora saw him like that. She didn’t think he cared about her.

And well, Maguro hadn’t really done anything to prove he did and resolved to fix that in the future. No kid deserved to feel unwanted, certainly not this one. 

“I know, I will in the future, though, if I ever react badly again. Hopefully, it doesn’t get that far, though.” 

Cora nodded in response and Maguro looked around for something else to try and show that he cared about her. If this conversation had taught him anything, it was that he and the rest of the crew would need to go the extra mile to make her feel welcome with them. This wasn’t Maguro’s strong point, but he knew it was something she needed and he wanted to make things right between them.

“You’re reading ‘The Human Body,’ right?” 

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve read it, mind refreshing me on some parts of it?”

“Oh, sure,” Cora responded as she picked up the book, “which parts?”

“All of it, to be honest.” Cora laughed at him, and went to the first chapter and started giving him a short lecture on the different systems in the body and what they did. Maguro honestly did not give a fuck about it, but he could tell Cora was excited to explain it, nearly as excited as the Captain got when he talked about the latest medical advancements, and let her talk his ear off for as long as she wanted. He could do that much for her at least.

KANI

Kani loved being a Heart Pirate. They loved the crew and all their oddities, how they all accepted them for who they were without asking questions. How everyone was committed to saving lives in flagrant disregard for what it usually meant to be a pirate. Captain Law was their favorite, they assumed most of the crew felt the same, not only because he saved them when they thought no one else could, but how strong he was in spite of his traumas.

And Kani knew their Captain had many traumas, even if he never breathed a word of it to them. The man was a hypocrite, insisting everyone else talk to Kani when they needed but never doing it himself. Kani didn’t mind, though. Forcing someone to talk was never helpful and they knew he’d come to them when he was ready to.

They kept a running list of all the things they’d noticed about their Captain and possible ways to help, slipping them into other conversations sometimes in hopes that their stubborn Captain would pick it up. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. But Kani was patient and didn’t mind waiting. They’d made it clear they were here to help if needed and could only trust that people would come to them on their own.

Cora approached them, too, but not to help deal with her obvious anxiety. She wanted to learn GLSL and Kani was only too happy to help her. The first sessions revealed she had basic knowledge of it, from one of the Marines at her base that suffered hearing damage from a bomb, and taught everyone to help them communicate with a selectively mute girl named Riyah. Cora claimed she only learned the basics, but her grasp of the structure was good and so Kani decided to work on vocab with her.

This basically amounted to just telling stories back and forth and clarifying words as they went. 

It was fortunate for them both that Cora had learned from a Marine and knew GLSL and not one of the other variants. It was statistically likely, GLSL was the most common form of sign language among humans and used throughout the government, but there was a chance she could have learned one of the regional variants instead. Kani also explained to her that each species had their own sign language altogether and would be incomprehensible to them both.

This had one drawback, though, in that it led Cora to ask questions Kani didn’t want to answer.

“You grew up on the Grand Line then?” Cora asked out loud and signed with it. Kani nodded in response and then corrected Cora’s signing of ‘grew up.’

‘Yes, my family traveled a lot, but we mostly stayed on the Grand Line,’ Kani signed slowly for Cora. When Cora didn’t know one of the signs, she’d make the sign for again and Kani would fingerspell it out for her. It made conversations slow and stilted, but Kani was patient and didn’t mind the effort it took to help her remember the words. It wasn’t often they had to repeat signs either, the girl soaked up knowledge like a sponge.

“Oh, were they pirates? Having a family of pirates seems weird, merchants then?” Kani watched as Cora fumbled through trying to solve the problem, mumbling to herself as she went. It was adorable watching her work through it, so Kani let her go on for a little bit before cutting her off with a vague answer.

‘Something like that.’

They knew instantly they caught her attention because her mumbling stopped and she looked at them intently. Kani schooled their face behind the mask into a perfect blank smile, something they had trained to perfect. Usually, it put people at ease but it only made Cora more wary of them. 

There were some things Kani didn’t want to explain to Cora, though, some things that she wasn’t ready to learn yet. The world was still new to her and she needed to be introduced slowly. Kani changed the subject.

‘What about your parents?’ Kani asked instead, gesturing to her. 

“I never knew them,” Cora explained, and continued at Kani’s questioning look. “I was left at the orphanage when I was young and then taken to the base later.”

Kani frowned through the mask and signed, ‘I’m sorry,’ but Cora waved them off.

“I never tried to look for them. Most of the people on the island lived under tough conditions and I realized quickly they probably couldn’t care for me well. And the orphanage wasn’t bad. We didn’t have a lot, but everyone was kind.” Cora stumbled through the signs for her words, so Kani corrected her, but she didn’t seem upset about the topic. Which was unusual in itself. Most orphans longed to see their families, find out who they were and why they had been left. It was interesting that she had bonded with others well enough that she didn’t feel that strain.

Something about her expression was still off, though. She wasn’t broken up about her birth family, so then what- Oh. The kids she left behind. She missed them. And once Kani thought that, her anxiousness made sense, too. Conflicted about whether leaving them behind was the right decision after being their protector for so long. Wanting to fit into this new family desperately. Luckily, this was exactly the kind of thing Kani excelled at.

Kani tapped her knee to get her attention and when she looked up they signed, ‘You look sad, though.’

“I miss the kids I left behind,” Cora admitted and Kani was surprised she admitted it so easily. They let the silence stretch on for a bit, wondering if she would talk more about it, but she changed the subject fast. 

“You help design weapons for the ship, but you have another job, right?”

‘Yes, I’m the ship’s psychologist.’ Cora gave him a confused look, so Kani finger spelled it out. Cora tried pronouncing it, and even wrote it down to look at it, but kept saying it wrong. Cora soon gave up trying to pronounce the word and just babbled nonsense with the same letters until Kani gave her a stop motion. Clearly, she wasn’t going to get how to pronounce it on her own. Perhaps Kani could…

But could they? They haven’t tried in so long now, gave up months ago when it became too painful. Even just thinking about it made Kani nervous, but Cora stared up at him innocently, pigtails swaying as her giggles petered out. And Kani thought for a second, maybe it would be alright to try again.

“Psychologist,” Kani rasped out and winced at how their voice sounded. It was too low, too scratchy. The timbre was off, it didn’t sound right, it wasn’t their voice, it wasn’t their voice, IT WASN’T THEIR VOICE-

“You can talk then?” Cora asked and Kani looked up to realize they had missed her signing it. She was probably close enough anyway. After a moment’s pause, Kani nodded.

“Why don’t you talk more often?” 

Kani took a breath to calm themselves before answering, ‘my voice sounds weird.’ 

“I don’t think it sounds weird at all!” Cora protested loudly and Kani held their hands up to shush her. The lounge was next to them and while no one would hear them talking, they would definitely notice if Cora started yelling.

‘Weird to me,’ Kani clarified. Cora stared at Kani and Kani was vaguely reminded of the looks Captain gave the crew when they’re being especially dumb about something. It was disapproving and self-righteous and adorable so Kani gave in and added on, ‘the last time I could hear my voice, I was a child. In my head, I still sound like that and to hear it out loud… is odd.’ Odd was an understatement, more like mind-wrenchingly jarring for them to hear, but they didn’t quite want to go that far with it.

“The last time you could hear it?”

‘I started going deaf as a child, until I couldn’t hear anything but the loudest noises. My mother hired a tutor for the family to teach us sign language to communicate and I lived like that for many years. The doctors we went to said that they wouldn’t be able to help it without surgery and that it had a high chance of going wrong. My mother and I agreed I was fine without it. 

‘Until I met Dr. Law who said he should be able to do it without the surgery. I agreed to let him try, and after looking it over for a week, he fixed it. Explained that it was a growth in my ear and that all he had to do was remove it. It was incredible.’

Cora looked at him in awe and Kani felt their pride for their Captain swell in their chest. While he had not fixed their problem instantly with a snap of his fingers, he had only spent a short week researching the topic and scanning Kani’s ear before finding the problem and solving it. Kani had been resigned to live their life in a mute world, but Captain Law had decided on a whim to save them from that. Their gratitude and amazement could never be adequately expressed, so Kani decided they would follow the Captain anywhere and do what they could to help him.

“But you still think of your voice as a child’s voice,” Cora said, breaking Kani out of their reverie.

‘Yes. I wore headphones to dampen the sound at first, but when I took them off and tried, it felt wrong. Even just talking to myself is weird, it’s like someone else is there.’

Just the thought of it was enough to give Kani shivers. To know they were saying words and hearing something come out in a voice they didn’t recognize. The solution was easy to see, talk more until they get used to it, but every time they tried it left them disoriented and confused. They had tried to pitch their voice higher, but that only disturbed them more. Eventually, they gave up trying.

“You don’t want to learn though? To recognize your own voice again?” Cora pressed when Kani didn’t respond. They ducked their head away from her and shook it.

‘It’s fine like this. I can just use sign language to talk.’

“What if you’re on an island by yourself trying to talk with people? Or you have something you want to say to someone but they don’t know GLSL? Or-” Cora protested, again her voice jumping in volume and Kani was quick to try and placate her.

‘I’m sure I’ll manage,’ Kani defended and they let their emotions get the better of them as their signing became more erratic. Kani didn’t want to listen to a stranger talk with their words, didn’t want to hear how awful they sounded after years of disuse. Things were fine this way. They didn’t need to speak out loud. Didn’t need to use their voice to try and convey their feelings.

Cora pressed on, leaning into his space and no longer signing, vehemently whispering, “Don’t you want to be able to know your own voice? And use it whenever you want to? Doesn’t it hurt that you can’t just say things-”

“Of course it does!” Kani hissed out, surprised at their own words. 

For all that they tried to convince themselves they didn’t need to speak, Kani knew it was a lie. Too many times they’d been alone in a town trying to buy items and resorted to pointing and gesturing. Too many times they’d tried to warn someone out of reach but couldn’t yell out. Wanted to tell someone thank you and not been understood. So many little connections had passed them by because they couldn’t bring themselves to say anything, too afraid of their own voice.

“Practice with me then,” Cora insisted, signing it out too, “if practicing on your own is so scary, practice with me.”

‘But…’ Kani started to sign and then let their hands stop as they thought about it. Would practicing with someone else help? Cora seemed to think so, but Kani wasn’t sure. Maybe having someone else there would stop their thoughts from spiraling when they got stuck on the fact their voice sounded so different. 

“You shouldn’t have to be afraid of your own voice.” 

Kani looked up at Cora and saw that she was looking at him with large, imploring eyes, hands fisted together tightly, waiting for him to agree. She may not understand their pain, but she wanted to help anyway. And that… that might be enough. She was right, Kani shouldn’t have to be afraid of their voice. They didn’t have to stay this way, they could change. They could learn to like their voice, strangeness and all.

Cora didn’t have to live in fear either, though.

“Ok. In return… talk… to me,” Kani said softly, trying to get used to the deeper tone and the scratchy feeling it gave them, and Cora sighed softly in relief before their words caught up to her.

“But I am talking with you… we’ve been talking…”

“Yes… but,” and then Kani’s throat twinged in discomfort and he signed the rest of it, “not about yourself.”

Cora tilted her head to the side like an adorably confused puppy, pigtails swaying gently with the movement, and Kani rushed to clarify.

“I heard… from others…” Kani spoke and then transitioned to signing again when their throat hurt too much, “what the Marine base was like. And you still seem affected by it.”

Directing the words towards Cora meant Kani didn’t need to focus on them as much, wasn’t trying to pick apart why their voice was different and overthinking it. They could just… talk and be heard.

As the seconds passed, Cora’s expression fell. Her eyes got darker and her shoulders slumped in, trying to protect herself from some unknown force. This was not what Kani intended. They wanted to help her, not send her into an anxiety attack.

“Cora,” Kani whispered and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, “it’s alright. You don’t… have to talk yet.” 

She looked up at him, searching his expression through the mask and Kani did their best to project warm acceptance in their posture. Whether she wanted to talk or not, they would be here to help her. She must have been able to see it because she straightened up and nodded at them. 

“I… I’m ready now. I’ll help you with your voice and you help me face my fears.” 

Kani’s face lit up with a wide grin and accepted the deal. It was probably going to be a little stressful, but Kani knew it would be worth it in the end, for both of them.

CLIONE

Clione was excited to have a new crew member. The last person to join was Swabbie, and while he was alright, he was also a very grumpy person and complained a lot. Cora brought new life to the ship with her thousands of questions and childlike wonder. Clione was subjected to many of these because Cora was on dish cleaning duty until the next crew member pissed off their Captain and had to clean dishes. 

The questions, he could deal with. The numerous cuts that appeared out of nowhere or eyes temporarily blinded by soapy water or whatever Cora did to get Swabbie to apologize, he could not. 

The girl was the worst kind of trouble magnet, more so than their Captain was and Clione simply could not believe that. Captain Law even went looking for trouble most of the time, but Cora could find a way to get herself hurt in room full of blankets and pillows.

To say the crew had become protective of her was an understatement. They had created a Cora emergency first aid kit just a few days after she arrived and placed one in every room. It contained bandages, antiseptic, gauze, and some chocolate that Clione knew came from Penguin’s personal stash. Tako handed her two of his pillows the other day and offered to tie them to her front and back for protection. The worst part was that Clione didn’t think they knew they were being so protective of her.

When Captain asked Clione to fix up her clothes, Clione knew he was far gone. The stubborn Surgeon of Death tried to explain it as not wanting his assistant to look shabby. Clione just shook his head in response with an amused smile. Honestly, though, he was relieved; he didn’t like seeing her in raggedy clothes either, but felt it was too impertinent of him to ask if he could fix them. 

It was early afternoon, deep under the ocean, and Clione was biding his time designing new clothes. Back braced on his headboard and notebook in his lap, Clione stared at the page willing the ideas to come to him but turned up frustratingly blank. Even when he had been a tailor’s apprentice under his father, he was never any good at it. Still, he liked the feel of cloth under his hands as he pushed the needle through it, knowing he was making something beautiful or useful- something just worthwhile. 

In a burst of inspiration not too long ago, he had made a dress that looked like a jellyfish. It took him forever and many wasted sheets of paper, but the end design was something he was incredibly proud of. He had shown it to Jelly in his excitement over it and she immediately asked him to make it for her. That had been a whole other ordeal, both in trying to find the right materials for it and the composition of it, but Jelly’s entire face lit up when he showed it to her and she continued to wear it around, so he counted it as a success.

Since that first one, though, nothing new has come to mind.

His rhythmic pencil tapping was interrupted when Cora came into the room, arms full of clothes. How she made it here at all was a mystery because her vision was blocked by the fabric in her arms.

“Ah, just put them on the bed,” Clione directed as he got up and Cora dumped the pile where he just vacated.

“Whew! I didn’t even trip once!” Cora told him proudly, hands on her hips and a huge beam on her face. It was sad that Clione found himself impressed by that statement.

Cora sat on an empty spot on his bed and Clione began inspecting the clothes. A few were good quality material, just worn through from use. Others were falling apart from shoddy seams and rapidly fraying edges. Most had holes and tears on the knees and elbows and none of them were long sleeved. When Clione asked what happened, Cora said that the tunnel to the caves was difficult to navigate through and Clione stopped asking questions.

A few of the clothes were salvageable, but about half of them would need to be replaced.

“Do you have a favorite color, Cora?” Clione asked as he went under his bed to get his fabric box.

“Ummm, orange. Or maybe green. Why?”

“Well, other than the standard uniform everyone wears, you should probably have a few other outfits.”

“I get a uniform?!” Cora exclaimed, leaning forward eagerly. Her feet kicked together like they were clapping and Clione smiled back at her open show of excitement. Most of the crew members were older and didn’t let themselves act so childishly. It was a refreshing change of pace.

“Of course, you’re part of the crew, aren’t you?”

Cora nodded at him before looking down timidly and slumping into herself. Oh, she didn’t believe it yet. Didn’t understand how much the crew already adopted her as one of them. Although, the crew hadn’t either so maybe it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

“Cora,” Clione said kneeling down in front of her, the box resting on his knees, “you are a part of this crew now. For better or worse, you’re a Heart pirate.”

She looked up at him and Clione could see that she wanted to believe him, but was holding herself back from it. Her eyes were wide and yearning, like looking at a meal in front of her but she wasn’t letting herself eat it yet. Something was making her hesitate. 

Clione could understand, though. It was hard to accept good fortune after spending so much time just fighting for survival. Not knowing if you’d be able to eat that day or where you would sleep at night. Being cold all the time no matter how many layers you put together because they were all threadbare anyway. Clione never appreciate the clothing his family made until he was left with shabby clothing trying to keep himself warm on a cold winter night.

Even after Captain Law rescued him from the streets and he joined the Heart Pirates he made sure they always had enough food and sturdy clothing. It was how the uniform thing happened initially, he made them for everyone so they would have something that lasted and it just became the uniform everyone wore all the time. It was plain, but easy to clean and resistant to stains and spills. He was a little proud everyone wore it all the time, but he couldn’t take the credit for it, the design had been his father’s after all.

Everyone wearing his clothing and eating his food was what finally cemented to him that he fit in here, though. That he wasn’t just some tag along trying to repay Captain Law back, but a true member of this crew. Cora would figure out her place in the crew in time, and until then they would just have to remind her when she got despondent about it.

“Okay,” she answered and while she didn’t look overly happy, her expression was noticeably brighter.

“Everyone gets the same beige material for their uniform, but I have some extra fabric here to make a few shirts and pants from. What colors would you like?” Clione explained and held out the box for her to pick through. As Cora riffled through the box of fabrics, Clione noticed that she often had to brush her bangs aside because they got in the way.

“Is there any reason you keep your bangs long?”

Cora paused in looking at a bright orange fabric that made Clione cringe to answer, “Not really, just that cutting them myself is a pain. Yomi was the one who cut everyone’s hair, but I guess that was a while ago now…”

“If you ask Jelly, I’m sure she’d help you out. She’s always getting on Hitode’s case to let her cut his bangs, too.”

“Oh, okay,” Cora replied and went back to staring at the orange fabric. When Clione asked if she wanted him to make a shirt out of it for her, she hesitated in answering him, and Clione realized she was unwilling to make direct requests of him and instead asked her to hand it to him so he could make her a shirt out of it. She seemed relieved at that and went back to browsing the box in quiet excitement.

“That reminds me, in addition to making you some new clothes, I’ll patch up the old ones here a bit, too. Is there anything in specific you’d like me to add?”

“Like what?”

Clione racked his brain trying to think what young girls usually had embroidered on their clothes and only came up with, “Flowers? Or beach things?”

“Beach things?” Cora questioned with a slight head tilt as she ran her fingers over a green silk piece, “like shells?”

“Yes, things like that.” Clione was glad he didn’t have to explain it further, but none of that seemed to excite Cora. And then she lit up suddenly and turned to him with an expression so full of hope and Clione knew whatever she asked he wouldn’t be able to turn it down.

“Can you do candy?”

“I… yes, I should be able to do candy.”

Of course, for the Lt that helped her out and was looking after the kids. Now that Clione thought about it, the beach probably just reminded her of working in the cave and since she lived on a base she probably never went flower picking either. Candy, though, he could do that.

“Oh, and hearts,” Cora said as she put the silk back, “because we’re the Heart Pirates, right?”

Clione laughed at that and Cora grinned back at him full of amusement. It may take some time, but Clione knew she’d find her place eventually. Already she was giving him ideas for new clothes to make and he was sure he wasn’t the only person happy to have someone new and full of energy on board. They’d make a Heart Pirate out of her yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully y'all enjoyed the new characters and getting to know them better. I'll probably go back to Law and Cora for a little bit before I switch it up again, but we will get to see more of everyone else, too. Next chapter starts the auction arc, probably will be as long as the marine base escape one. Let me know in a comment what you thought of the new characters and the story in general!


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